HSLIC Special Collections
The New Mexico Health Historical Collection
The New Mexico Health Historical Collection documents the history of health in the state and the Southwest by collecting and preserving materials that include oral histories, organizational records, rare books, photographs, artifacts, and a monograph collection.
The Oral History Program
The Oral History Program was begun in 1982 to record the work experiences of the most senior and longest-practicing medical doctors in the state. The program, which is ongoing, contains approximately 160 accessible transcripts of doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals.
The collections are available for use by the general public and UNM students, faculty, and staff in the New Mexico Health Historical Collection Room of the library.
Announcements
The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
An exciting new traveling exhibit, The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic, is coming to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center February 2 - March 2, 2010. The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic takes a humanistic look at the cost of mental illness on individuals and society by telling the stories of nine patients through their suitcases and possessions they left behind. Concurrently, HSLIC will be hosting a discussion series on topics such as homelessness, health equity, and health policy as these subjects relate to mental health.
Las Doctoras: Medical Missionaries in Northern New Mexico
“Las Doctoras: Medical Missionaries in Northern New Mexico,” a new exhibit from the New Mexico Health Historical Collection (NMHHC), presents a snapshot of the lives of three Presbyterian medical missionaries who came to New Mexico in the 1930s and 1940s. The three women highlighted in the exhibit—Sarah Bowen, Edith Millican, and Virginia Voorhies Milner—wanted to work for the Presbyterian Foreign Missions Board, but through serendipity they were sent to New Mexico on temporary assignments that would last all of their lives. With photographs from The Menaul Historical Library of the Southwest, oral histories from NMHHC, and excerpts from their own published materials, the exhibit provides a brief look at their work as missionary physicians who wanted to serve and save the isolated communities in the northern mountains of the state. The exhibit is open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00 until 5:00 or by appointment. Contact Peggy McBride via email or phone (272-8873) for more information.
The Rocky Mountain Online Archive (RMOA)
A source of information about archival collections in Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming, is available for use. Using specialized guides, called finding aids, RMOA entries give detailed descriptions of primary source materials located at twenty repositories. HSLIC's New Mexico Health Historical Collection is a part of this NEH-sponsored project, having contributed finding aids for 26 collections. Find RMOA at: http://rmoa.unm.edu. If you have questions, contact Peggy McBride.