The Old & the New

In preparation for next week’s Baltimore City Medical Society’s annual meeting and holiday dinner, I was asked to give a tour of the building. Unfortunately, I have another engagement and so I created building information sheets so members could give themselves brief self-guided tours.

In creating the sheet for the 1909 building, I took an early watercolor of the building, which we use on notecards, and scanned it into the computer. Then I took a photograph I had taken earlier and merged it with the watercolor.

Because of the Meyerhoff, I can only back up so far, and can’t get the entire building into a photograph! I should probably take another picture of the building now that we have new blinds in the Krause Room and once the leaves are all the way off the trees!

This is a picture of the building I Photo-shopped for a tour right before Halloween. All of our ghostly friends are looking out the windows.

If you stop by, I will happy to give you a tour.

Happy Thanksgiving!

All of our very best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!

Is Ruxton a Menace to the Health of Baltimore?

From an article in the September 1890 issue of the Maryland Medical Journal!

And so interesting that they’re talking about climate change in 1890, too!

Happy Halloween!

Our resident ghost popped in to trick or treat. We can’t wait to see what she has in store for us.

BOO!

Doors Open Baltimore

The Baltimore Architecture Foundation has invited MedChi to participate in the Second Annual Doors Open Baltimore project. This one-day free event welcomes the public to tour buildings passed by regularly, but not often entered. Under the theme Undiscovered Baltimore, the event will feature sites both hidden from view and hiding in plain sight, along with perennial favorites with secrets of their own.

While MedChi has been in the same location since 1909, not many of the general public have had an opportunity to visit the building. During two tours at 10:00 and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 24,visitors will be able to view some of MedChi’s collection of historic portraits,

see our collection of medical archives,

and tour our stacks, which are home to more than 55,000 volumes dating to the 1600’s and sometimes, even our ghost, Marcia.

For more information, please check the Doors Open website: here.

Gundry-Glass Hospital

UPDATE: Sadly, this building was a victim of an arson attack and burned in September of 2021. The remains were bulldozed. 

During the early part of the 1900’s, our Medical Journals were filled with advertisements for private sanitariums and convalescent facilities, many of which were located in country environs with plenty of fresh air and green grass.

Several of these facilities were operated by the Gundry family, and most were located in the Catonsville (now Irvington) section of Baltimore, just inside of the city lines.

Dr. Alfred T. Gundry served as the medical superintendent at nearby Spring Grove Hospital from 1878 to 1891 where he was a pioneer in ending the use of mechanical restraints on psychiatric patients. In the late 1800s, he established the Gundry Sanitarium on his family farm

Certainly, his brother, Dr. Richard Gundry had some luminaries associated with his facility, including Dr. Osler!

 

Several weeks ago, Baltimore Heritage, where our History of Maryland Medicine Board Member, Johns Hopkins is the Executive Director, shared some images of the Gundry-Glass house as it is today.

It’s owned by the city, but is abandoned and is being used as a general dumping ground.

There are several out-buildings, and a few years ago, an idea was floated to have a resident care-taker live on the property and make sure that it wasn’t vandalized or used as a dumping ground. The State of Maryland has a resident curator program for properties such as this. The “curator” lives in the house rent-free, and agrees to renovate, maintain and care for the property for the length of the tenancy.

Until it closed in 1997, the property was used as a mental health facility, most recently for children. This property has a long and interesting history, and it’s a shame that it’s been left to fall apart.

A Visit to UM’s Health Sciences and Human Services Library

I had a chance to visit the University of Maryland’s Health Sciences and Human Services Library earlier this week. The library was founded in 1813, shortly after the medical school was founded, by MedChi member, Dr. John Crawford and following his death the same year, the library acquired his collection of medical books which gave it a great start.  In 1903, another MedChi member, Dr. Eugene Cordell, became the first professional library. Cordell had just finished writing the Medical Annals of Maryland, celebrating MedChi’s first 100 years. Cordell was also a Professor of the History of Medicine and acquired the book collections from the Schools of Dentistry and Pharmacy, greatly enlarging the library. After moving around several times, the library’s newest building opened in 1998 on the corner of West Lombard and Greene Streets. The new building which is light and airy, and features great views from every aspect.

Of course, there is the work of the library that benefits students, professors and the general public. Some of the links on the website are shown below, and the staff has been working hard at digitizing their collections, including some of their oldest papers – those from founder, Dr. Crawford.

Take a wander around the site and see what you can come up with. The link is here.

My thanks to the staff who took time to meet with me!