Robert Wigton, M.D., assistant dean of special projects, has teamed with College of Medicine Dean Brad Britigan, M.D., and McGoogan Library Director Emily McElroy to create a new photo history exhibit, “130 Years of Leadership — Images of the Deans of the College of Medicine.”
The exhibit, which includes photos and information on every former dean of the college, hangs outside the College of Medicine offices on the fourth floor of the Sorrell Center.
UNMC leaders and members of the UNMC community were joined by family members of some of the former deans for the unveiling, followed by tours of the exhibit led by Dr. Wigton.
“In today’s rapidly changing technological society, I sometimes think people define history as something that happened a short 10 years ago,” Dr. Britigan said. “History, and remembering our collective history, is an important endeavor.
“Certainly the leadership provided through the deans of our College of Medicine is worthy of study, note and celebration. Together, they have set this college on a course of sustained excellence.”
Dr. Britigan lauded Dr. Wigton and “the entire Wigton family” for their work on the exhibit.
“Thanks to Bob’s efforts and other events planned for campus, we are enjoying and celebrating a journey of discovery, or sometimes rediscovery, through our history,” Dr. Britigan said.
This project is just one of many the library has brainstormed with Dr. Wigton, McElroy said.
“I have enjoyed working with Bob and John Schleicher, our head of special collections, as we brainstorm ideas,” McElroy said. “It wasn’t too long ago that we celebrated their work on the historical marker for Poynter Hall.”
The display also has been memorialized as a book of photographs and biographies, which is available for view electronically in Digital Commons, the institutional repository housing the current work of UNMC faculty and staff as well as historical documents.
“In the coming years, you will start to see more results of our strong partnership from new exhibits and campus photographs to new oral histories and so on,” McElroy said.