Military Medicos - Tulane's new digital collection of the 24th General Hospital in World War II

The Matas Library is proud to announce a new digital collection of WWII photographs from the 24th General Hospital in World War II. The collection consists of 134 images from scanned negatives of photographs taken of the Tulane University 24th General Hospital (United States, Army) and sites visited by Colonel Samuel Harvey Colvin, Jr., M.D. This collection is part of the Rudolph Matas Library of the Health Sciences. Access is provided via the Tulane University Digital Library.

The 24th General Hospital was based in Italy and Tunisia. Thirty Tulane medical graduates and ten Tulane faculty members were included in the complement of forty-two medical doctors.

Some pictures from the collection: 


Medical Officers in quarters at leisure

Group Portrait

Medical Laboratory

 

Children on hillside

Tulane Memory enhanced by a recent donation the Matas History Collection

The History Collection of the Matas Library has a number of resources from the founding of the Medical School in 1834. These historic items include the prospectus and lecture tickets. Our collection was recently enhanced by N. Robert Elson, M.D. (1979).

Dr. Elson donated a historic copy of the Weekly Picayune, Sept. 23, 1844 to the Matas History Collection. The paper includes an ad for the Medical College of Louisiana, Session of 1844-1845. The ad, which appears on page 255, lists the annual course of lectures with the faculty; John Harrison, M.D., James Jones, M.D., Warren Stone, M.D., J.L. Riddell, M.D., A.H Cenas, M.D. (Dean), A. H. Carpenter, M.D., A. J. Wedderburn, M.D. and John F. Eustis. The paper will be exhibited in the case at the entrance to the Matas Library.

What else happened in 1844 at the Medical School? A school library was established and a librarian was hired. Dr. Isidore Labatut donated several hundred valuable works, spurring the faculty to establish a library in April 25, 1844. For more information concerning the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana in 1844 read the 1984 book by John Duffy titled: The Tulane University Medical Center: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Medical Education.

James Doty, Rudolph Matas Library Benefactor

Dr. James Doty was profiled in a Wall Street Journal. (Friday, July 6, 2007), Giving Till it Hurts. Dr. Doty has donated $29 million to charity, which is about 99% of his net worth. In addition to his donations outlined in the Wall Street Journal article he has made recent donations to Tulane, a portion of which is dedicated to the renovation of the Rudolph Matas Library.


Dr. Doty, a neurosurgeon in Mississippi, is a graduate of Tulane School of Medicine and fondly recalls his historic research done in the Matas Library with the assistance of Patsy Copeland, who retired in 2003.