Dedication Ceremony, June 19, 1926
Take a look at our latest collection in the UH Digital Library, featuring items documenting the early years of the Houston Negro Hospital, the first nonprofit hospital for African Americans in Houston. This online collection is a fantastic historic resource, and it incorporates a new Digital Library feature. When you visit the main Houston Negro Hospital collection page, you’ll see an interactive timeline highlighting some of the most important and interesting items in the collection.
Houston Defender article about the dedication of the Nurses Home, March 14, 1931
In the early 1920s, the need for a new African American hospital became clear to the community and its physicians. Though a group of physicians had established the Union-Jeremiah Hospital to serve the community, they quickly realized the need for something larger. Joseph S. Cullinan, a successful oilman who had founded Texas Company (later Texaco), was impressed with the group’s work and donated $80,000 to the group in 1923. On June 19, 1926, the building’s cornerstone was dedicated to Cullinan’s deceased son, an Army officer who led African American soldiers during World War I. Cullinan, who made additional donations to the hospital, was consulted and kept informed about hospital business.
The hospital, located in Houston’s Third Ward, opened to patients on May 14, 1927, and provided a place for African American physicians, who were not allowed to admit patients to the African American wards in Houston’s other hospitals, to practice medicine and train students and nurses. It initially operated on an “insurance” system in which individuals and families paid a yearly subscription which entitled them to treatment. The hospital’s early years were difficult, with problems that included a lack of patients and dissension among and between the hospital’s two boards, one African American and one white.
J.S. Botley, the first baby born in the hospital. Botley was born on May 21, 1927.
This digital collection, containing nearly one thousand items, includes a copy of the African American board’s resignation letter, a photograph of the first baby born in the hospital, critical editorials from a local African American newspaper, business papers about the construction and care of the building, and more. The timeline features some of these documents, and clicking on any of the items in the timeline will take you directly to the item in the collection, where you can take a closer look.
The items in the Houston Negro Hospital collection come from the Joseph S. Cullinan Papers held in Special Collections. Contact Valerie Prilop, Digital Collections Librarian, for questions about the digital collection. To see the original items or more from that collection, contact the collection curator, Dr. Terry Tomkins-Walsh or visit our Reading Room.
Two new Houston History Archives finding aids have recently been published in Archon, both dealing with environmental subjects and activists.
Hana Ginzbarg Papers: This collection contains the papers of Hana Ginzbarg related to efforts to preserve Armand Bayou. Starting in 1970, Ginzbarg spearheaded the campaign to rename and preserve the bayou, which was then known as Middle Bayou.
Sarah and Army Emmott Environmental Papers: The Emmotts were among Houston’s preeminent environmental activists, working on the Texas Beaches Unlimited initiative, supporting the Save Buffalo Bayou campaign, and founding the Citizens’ Environmental Coalition. This collection contains Sarah Emmott’s personal papers.
In other finding aid news, the Athletic Department Records finding aid has recently been revised.
The Archives and Archivists of Color Roundtable, a group within the Society of American Archivists, recently featured an article written by Special Collections’ Valerie Prilop and Digital Services’ Nicci Westbrook about an ongoing project to digitize papers covering the founding and early operation of the Houston Negro Hospital.
The hospital, located near the University of Houston campus, was dedicated on Juneteenth in 1926 and opened to patients the following year. It allowed African American doctors to admit their patients and gave community members the opportunity to buy “insurance” which entitled them to treatment in the hospital. The papers being digitized, which come from Special Collections’ Joseph S. Cullinan Papers, provide information about the initial founding and early operation of the hospital and about a number of problems, including conflict between the African American and white boards.
For more information about the hospital and the project, take a look at the article on page 4 of the AAC newsletter.
The current Special Collections exhibit, Foley’s Department Store: Houston’s Community Partner, 1900-2005, highlights materials from the Foley’s Department Store Collection. This collection spans more than a century of Foley’s, and Houston’s, history. The exhibit includes photographs, posters, documents and advertisements. The second floor exhibit space includes a slideshow of historic photos.
Materials are open to the public anytime the library is open, so stop by and take a look!
Visit the exhibit page for more details, or learn more about the Foley’s collection.
Several new finding aids are up on TARO this week, each representing a unique part of Houston history:
Joseph Stephen Cullinan Collection
Back at UH after their long term loan to the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, the collection documents the life and work of Joseph Cullinan, founder of the Texas Company and one of Houston’s most influential citizens.
The papers of former Houston mayor Kathy Whitmire, the first woman elected to Houston City government, are now housed in the Women’s Archives.
Houston Heights Woman’s Club Records
Founded in 1906 by some of the founding women residents of the Houston Heights, the records of this organization document civic, cultural and literary activities.