The Texas Medical Association’s sesquicentennial in 2003 gave TMA and its physicians plenty of reason to celebrate. One hundred and fifty years of helping patients is a great accomplishment, and to commemorate it, the board-appointed History of Medicine Committee installed new exhibits in its Austin gallery, illustrating the history of medical education in Texas, the triumph of underrepresented groups in medicine, and the story of TMA itself.
But such a celebration of Texas medicine couldn’t be restricted to guests in Austin. So, the exhibits were reconfigured into banner form, allowing them to be sent across the state for use in clinics, schools, museums, libraries, and county medical societies.
The banner exhibits, funded by the TMA Foundation, allow the association to take community outreach to a new level, says archive and museum exhibits assistant Audrey Griffin.
“The main benefit is portability,” she said. “Most, if not all of them, are abbreviated versions of our past gallery exhibits. We take a broad overview of the information, zoom out and include the most important things, and put them on a banner. They roll up so you’re able to ship them out, but then people are able to stand them up and it actually looks like a little mini exhibit.”
TMA banner exhibits have shipped, completely free of charge, to vaccination sites, physicians’ offices, medical schools, and more. They’re also used within the organization; the Women Physicians Section likes to display the Women in Texas Medicine banner exhibit at meetings, for instance.
Similarly, TMA already has received requests to use certain banners to commemorate special dates – such as Courage and Determination, an exhibit on Black physicians, being requested for Black History Month, or the Women in Texas Medicine banner for Women in Medicine Month.
“Certainly, if we can show those groups that they're represented in our historical exhibits, that's important for outreach to those groups,” said Claire Duncan, TMA’s director of Information Services, citing an opportunity to introduce new potential members to the association.
The banner exhibits are also unique in that they can be translated into other languages. While pricey, doing so can have ripple effects on public health and community trust in medicine. TMA has translated into Spanish its Stamping Out Disease banner on infectious disease and vaccination, and its Deep Roots banner on botanical medicine and prescriptions.
The traveling exhibits are on track to continue to grow, too, Ms. Griffin says.
“Our long-term goal is always to increase the number of exhibits and the scope of who we’re able to reach,” she said.
It’s a mission backed by the TMA Board and by the association’s members, Ms. Duncan says.
“Physicians care about their history and they're proud of their history and they should be,” she said. The banner exhibits commemorate that passion in a way “people really love.”
For more information on TMA’s History of Medicine exhibits and to request a banner, visit texmed.org/history.