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2008 May
Kidney transplant surgery, circa 1981. The first kidney transplant in the state of Alabama was conducted at the Medical Center in Birmingham on May 8, 1968. Dr. Arnold G. Diethelm performed the surgery and headed the transplant team. In the 40 years since that first surgery, UAB has grown to be one of America's top transplant centers with patients arriving from around the globe for treatment. Currently, the university has active programs in kidney, heart, liver, lung, bone marrow, pancreas, cornea and retina transplantation.
Image ID: P7.3.3, #0310
2008 April
Construction of the optometry building, circa 1974. The steel structure of a building to house the School of Optometry rises on the UAB campus. The optometry building was dedicated on September 12, 1975 ; it would be renamed the Henry B. Peters Building in 1994 in honor the school's founding dean. In this view looking east from Volker Hall, the Statue of Hippocrates is visible in the original courtyard that was located in front of the Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences.
2008 March
The Engineering Building gets a new sign, December 1966. Pictured are (left to right) Don Bowermann, president of the Birmingham Chapter of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers, and Dr. Joseph H. Appleton, professor of Civil Engineering. The AIIE chapter provided funding for the lettering on the building. Dr. Appleton later served as director of the Engineering Division from 1967 until 1971 and as first dean of the School of Engineering from 1971 until 1978. The engineering program began in the 1940s and was the first non-health related program at UAB where students could complete all of their coursework in Birmingham.
Image ID: P7.2.7, #0305
2008 February
Lawrence Reynolds, MD, at the opening reception of the Lawrence Reynolds Library, 1958. Dr. Reynolds, an Alabama native, selected the medical school in Birmingham as home for his collection of over 6,000 books, manuscripts and artifacts. The Lawrence Reynolds Library was dedicated on February 2, 1958. Since 1974 the Reynolds Historical Library has been housed within UAB's Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences. The library collection has grown to over 13,000 items and the library is one of three units that comprise UAB Historical Collections.
Image ID: P7.2.7, #1521
2008 January
Gladys McQueen becomes the university's first "Employee of the Month," January 1978. McQueen, who had 25 years of service with the university, was a keypunch supervisor in the Central Computing Facility. In January of 1979 she would also be selected as UAB's first "Employee of the Year."
Image ID: P7.2.2, #0574
Smiles all around as Santa Claus stops to chat with medical students in the cafeteria of University Hospital, 1967.
Image ID: P16.1.3, #2739
UAB Archives, 1993. Formally established in November of 1992 by President Charles A. McCallum, Jr., the UAB Archives is a campus-wide repository charged with maintaining UAB's records of historical value and with collecting the history of the health sciences. Previous attempts to collect historical material by the Department of Medicine and by the Jefferson County Medical Society helped in the development of the new campus repository. The archives was initially housed in the ETS area (pictured here) of the Mervyn H. Sterne Library. In 1998 the UAB Archives became a unit of the Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences.Image ID: P7.4.1, #723
2007 October
UAB Homecoming Parade, 1995. Initially UAB celebrated homecoming during the basketball season. The first homecoming was celebrated at UAB in January 1979. After the establishment of an NCAA Division I-AA football team in 1993, the festivities were moved to the fall to be part of football season. The first homecoming celebrated during the fall was held October 1994.
2007 September
Site of the University of Alabama Extension Center in Birmingham, undated. The former home was located at 2131 6th Avenue North and was acquired as part of a mortgage foreclosure. On September 14, 1936 the University of Alabama's Birmingham Extension Center opened in the renovated building. For the first term, 116 students were enrolled. The center remained at this location until 1954 when a new facility opened adjacent to the Medical Center. The old house was later demolished for a parking lot.
Image ID: P7.2.7, #0313
2007 August
Nursing students relax in the dorm, 1967. In August of 1967 the nursing school was moved from its original home on the campus in Tuscaloosa to Birmingham to become part of the growing Medical Center. The nursing residence hall (later renamed Hixson Hall) offered living and entertainment areas for the students moving to Birmingham.
Image ID: P14, #0127
2007 July
University Hospital staff train in the use of an iron lung, circa 1958. Nurse Vivian Brown instructs hospital orderlies in the use of the Tank Respirator (iron lung) as part of University Hospital's in-service education program.
Image ID: P16.1.12, #2505
Visiting actors Kitty Carlisle Hart (center) and Birmingham native Wayne Rogers (left) view artifacts in the Town and Gown Theatre, May 1978. James F. Hatcher (right) founded the theatre in 1950 and directed it until his retirement from UAB in 1991. Hatcher eventually created a museum in the Clark Theater Building with his collection of letters, photographs, scripts and props; some of the items from that museum are now contained in the Hatcher Collection at the UAB Archives.
Image ID: P7.4.2, #0167
2007 May
Constructing the addition to the Lister Hill Library, circa 1995. Ground was broken for a major renovation and expansion of UAB's health sciences library in September 1994. The new addition was completed in 1996, the renovation was finished in 1997, and the "new" Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences was dedicated in ceremonies on May 2, 1997.
2007 April
Respiratory therapy instruction, 1970s. The respiratory therapy program was developed at University Hospital and in 1970 was moved to the university's newest academic school, the School of Community and Allied Health Resources. Today, the respiratory therapy program is housed within the Department of Critical Care in the UAB School of Health Professions.
Image ID: P7.2.7, #1821
2007 March
The School of Public Health, circa 1982. The medical center's youngest academic school, the UAB School of Public Health, was approved by the University of Alabama Board of Trustees in May 1981. Until its move to the Ryals Building in 1996, the school was located in Tidwell Hall on South 20th Street (on the site currently occupied by the Kaul Human Genetics Building). At the time of this photo, the building's facade carried the university's official name, the "University of Alabama in Birmingham." In November 1984 the name was changed to the current "University of Alabama at Birmingham."Image ID: P7.3.1, #219
Welcoming the Sun Belt Conference Championship to Birmingham, February 1982. UAB Athletic Director and Head Basketball Coach Gene Bartow (right) and Ferd Weil (left) of the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce hang green and gold welcome banners along UAB streets. The UAB Blazer Men's Team won the conference championship, gaining the school's first Sun Belt title. Bartow was named conference Coach of the Year and UAB player Oliver Robinson was named conference Player of the Year.
Image ID: P7.4.1, #2023
2007 January
A dental student at work in the School of Dentistry clinic, circa 1958. The dental school was founded in 1948 and the first class graduated in 1952. The clinic facility pictured was completed in 1951 as a portion of the Medical and Dental Basic Science Building (renamed the School of Dentistry Building in 1976).
Image ID: P11, #033
2006 December
University Hospital and a special Christmas visitor send holiday greetings to hospital patients, visitors and staff, circa 1967.Image ID: P7.3.5: #092
The UAB mascot entertains fans at a Blazer basketball game, circa 1981. On November 24, 1978 the men's basketball team played its first NCAA-level game in front of more than 14,000 fans at the BJCC. The Blazers lost the game to Nebraska. Four days later, the Lady Blazers lost their first game against North Alabama. "Beauregard T. Rooster," the second mascot of UAB, debuted in 1979 and remained the University’s mascot throughout the 1980s.
Image ID: P6, #001
2006 October
Commencement ceremony for the Medical College of Alabama, October 25, 1946. Homer W. Allgood, Jr., and Virginia D. Hamilton examine a diploma from the medical school's first commencement in Birmingham. Allgood was the first person to receive a diploma at the ceremony and Hamilton was the first female in the history of the medical school to receive the MD degree.
2006 September
Governor Albert P. Brewer announces the new University of Alabama System, June 19, 1969. At a press conference in Montgomery, Governor Brewer announced that the "University of Alabama in Birmingham" and the "University of Alabama in Huntsville" would become independent campuses and join the University of Alabama in a new three-campus administrative system. Meeting with the media are (left to right) Daniel T. McCall, Jr., member of the University of Alabama Board of Trustees; Dr. Joseph F. Volker, newly named president of UAB; Juanita Volker; Governor Brewer; Mary Mathews; Dr. F. David Mathews, president of the University of Alabama; and J. Rufus Bealle, Board secretary. Following a search process, Dr. Benjamin B. Graves would be named the first president of UAH in 1970.Image ID: P1, #0380b
2006 August
University College registration, September 1972. Registration for University College was held in the gymnasium of UAB's Bell Building. A total of 7,564 students enrolled in credit and non-credit courses during the two-day registration on September 21-22. Before the days of personal computers and online registration, UAB students would queue for their classes at tables placed around the gym.Image ID: P7.2.7, #2070
2006 July
Hillman Hospital, circa 1928. The Hillman Hospital was dedicated on July 15, 1903, but the history of the hospital itself reaches back to 1888 when a charity hospital was established in the young city of Birmingham. Ground was broken at the corner of South 20th Street and 6th Avenue South for the "new" Hillman Hospital in May of 1902. The Hillman Hospital building remains as part of the UAB Hospital complex.Image ID: MC51, #127g
2006 June
Optometry student Terrence N. Ingraham examines a patient, May 1978. Ingraham received his O.D. degree from the UAB School of Optometry in June 1978, becoming the first African American graduate of the school.Image ID: P7.4.1, #0675
Jo Ann Hyatt, assistant instructor of nursing, examines the rare books housed in the Reynolds Historical Library at the University of Alabama Medical Center, Birmingham, 1958.Image ID: P7.2.3, #0579