History of Medicine

Changing History: How TMA Has Influenced the Course of Texas Medicine - 06/04/2024

From ushering in significant legislative reforms and responding to emergencies to expanding its own operations and solving seemingly intractable problems, TMA has played an active role in Texas and national medical history over the past 50 years.

Living Legacy: TMA Archive Preserves Medicine's Past - 06/04/2024

TMA’s archive is vital resource for member physicians, medical historians, genealogists, and educators as well as TMA boards, councils, and committees, which lean on documented precedent when crafting internal policy.

The Knowledge Center Turns 20: Answering Physicians' Questions and Stewarding Medical History - 04/09/2024

The Texas Medical Association Knowledge Center helps physicians navigate daily challenges, and stewards an archive of Texas medical history.

TMA’s Banner Exhibits Take Medical History on the Road - 08/23/2023

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.

The History of Medicine Gallery Brings Physicians’ Triumphs to the Public - 08/22/2023

In 1989, with a new Texas Medical Association headquarters set to open in Austin, the newly reformed, board-appointed History of Medicine Committee had a vision. With rare and novel artifacts in TMA’s archive, and a long and storied history of success to tell, the committee planned for a gallery museum to be installed on the building’s first floor.

TMA Archive Brings Medicine’s Past Into the Future - 08/21/2023

Over a hundred years ago, the Texas Medical Association’s 35th president Frank Paschal, MD, of San Antonio, had eyes on the future. In his 1904 presidential address, he told the House of Delegates, “The labors of this Association should always be conserved, and unless steps are taken, the past work will be lost forever.”

The Handbook of Texas Medicine - 07/22/2021

As a Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) special project, the Handbook of Texas Medicine will add 400 new entries featuring a broad array of topics, as well as revise several hundred existing entries. New Handbook entries will promote a greater understanding of the past while providing valuable context for present-day issues and crises. Upon completion, the Handbook of Texas Medicine will become the first state-based online medical encyclopedia in the U.S. TSHA is honored to collaborate in this endeavor with two venerable institutions: the Texas Medical Association and The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).

Desegregating Medicine: Edith Irby Jones, MD, Broke Barriers in All-White Medical Schools in the South - 03/31/2020

 Houston internist Edith Irby Jones, MD, broke barriers in all-white medical schools in the South and in her hometown of Houston. She died at age 91.

Iron Lung Among Items Added To TMA’s Archives - 11/20/2019

In the fall of this year, Seton Family of Hospitals, of which Dell Children’s is a member, donated their materials to the Robert G. Mickey History of Medicine Gallery at the Texas Medical Association Louis J. Goodman Building in Austin. Some of the more notable standouts include a cadaver skeleton, nurse and vintage candy striper uniforms, and an iron lung.

One Giant Step for Physicians: A Texas Physician’s Role in Space-Race Medicine - 08/02/2019

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of America’s Apollo 11 Lunar Mission – the first time humans set foot on the moon. Across the world, the event was heralded as a milestone of scientific achievement, and its three-man crew – Neil Armstrong, Col. Buzz Aldrin, and Lt. Col. Michael Collins – became American heroes. Laboring behind the scenes were swarms of unsung individuals whose expertise made the enterprise possible, including Texas cardiologist Lawrence E. Lamb, MD. His 2006 memoir Inside the Space Race: A Space Surgeon’s Diary remains a vivid account of the essential role physicians played in the race to reach the moon.  

TMA Archives Photoshoot: A Look Back in Time(lapse) - 06/18/2019

Go behind the scenes as photographer Matt Lemke shoots some of the most interesting medical memorabilia in the Texas Medical Association archives and History of Medicine collection – everything from 15th century anatomical illustrations to Civil War postmortem dissection kits.

TMA Exhibit Explores Disasters That Helped Shape Texas Medicine - 10/22/2018

The Texas Medical Association is highlighting some of the state’s most notorious disasters, and the medical responses to them, in its newest exhibit, “When Disaster Strikes…Six Catastrophes That Changed Texas Medicine.” The exhibit is on display until September 2019 in the Robert G. Mickey History of Medicine Gallery at the TMA headquarters in Austin.

Fighting on Two Fronts - 09/06/2018

The only female Texas physician to serve in World War I broke barriers in more ways than one.

Imploded Austin Building’s Namesake Stood Tall for Texas Medicine - 03/28/2018

On March 25, Ashbel Smith Hall in Austin was imploded to make way for a new downtown development. This was not a case of yet another capital city landmark falling by the wayside, as the nine-story concrete building was, by all accounts, bland and architecturally dull. The building’s namesake, however, is a different story.

HOM Kiosk Videos - 01/05/2017

HOM Kiosk Videos