Have you ever thought about what the campus looked like 50 or 100 years ago? Or how we’ve grown to become the large health sciences institution that we are today? Perhaps you have wondered what was located on the site of a new building?
The library now has historic images of the campus reproduced as postcards available for purchase.
The UNMC archive in the McGoogan Library of Medicine has thousands of historical images of campus activities and events, people, places, and buildings old and new, showing the history of our departments, colleges and institutes, as well as how our campus has grown and expanded over time. From the founding of our first school — the Omaha Medical College — in 1881, to the recent opening of the UNMC Center for Drug Discovery and Lozier Center for Pharmacy Sciences and Education, decades of history are preserved in these images.
The Omaha Medical College opened classes 135 years ago with eight first-year medical students. Growth and expansion have continued from that time to the present. Education, research and patient care have expanded to all of the various fields in the health professions. Departments, schools, colleges and buildings were added, and the geographic area of the campus in midtown Omaha expanded, along with sites across Nebraska. The student population increased from those original eight medical students to more than 3,800 students currently.
The postcard images come in three categories: buildings, places, and people; each category includes 10 images. The building photos include the old front of University Hospital in the 1950s, still intact but seldom noticed behind the much larger Wittson Hall. Among the photos of people is the class of 1906 from the College of Medicine, which included one woman. And the images of places on campus include a 1928 photo of the pediatric ward of the hospital decorated for the holidays. Many decades of campus history are shown in the postcard images.
Postcards are available for purchase by contacting the McGoogan Library AskUs desk, located on the sixth floor of Wittson Hall. Packages of 10 postcards are $5. Call the AskUs desk at 559-4006, to have postcards sent through campus mail. Share the pride you have in our campus with your family and friends this holiday season by sending them images of our hallowed halls.