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People's Institute and Free Dispensary glass lantern slide collection, 1907-1909; 1998
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Prichard, Valentine; Portland Free Dispensary; People's Institute
- Title
- People's Institute and Free Dispensary glass lantern slide collection
- Dates
- 1907-1909; 1998 (inclusive)19071998
1907-1909 (bulk)19071909 - Quantity
-
0.75 linear feet, (52 glass lantern slides and 35mm copies)
- Collection Number
- 1999-010
- Summary
- The People's Institute was organized in 1904 to improve living conditions for the women and children in the northern end of Portland. The impetus for the Institute was a report by Valentine Prichard, supervisor of the public school kindergartens and principal of a training school for kindergarten teachers. This report, given in 1902 to Dr. Edgar P. Hill, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, along with Caroline Ladd and her daughter Helen Ladd Corbett, described the deplorable conditions of the women and children in north Portland Unable to provide even the bare necessities for their children, single mothers and their offspring lived in dark, unkempt rooming houses and tenements. Children, surrounded by immorality, often turned to crime, growing up idle and becoming a menace to society. Miss Prichard and a staff of workers visited homes to establish the needs of the women and children and to decide what could be done to help them and to establish the aims of the organization. The collection consists of fifty-two black and white glass lantern slides, ca. 1907-1909, illustrating the activities of the People's Institute and Portland Free Dispensary.
- Repository
-
Oregon Health & Science University, Historical Collections & Archives
OHSU Historical Collections & Archives
Oregon Health & Science University
3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd. MC:LIB
Portland, OR
97239
Telephone: 5034945587
hcaref@ohsu.edu - Access Restrictions
-
There are no restrictions on access. This collection is open to the public.
- Languages
- English
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The collection consists of fifty-two black and white glass lantern slides, ca. 1907-1909, illustrating the activities of the goiter, nutrition, infant and preschool clinics of the Portland Free Dispensary and cooking, sewing, housekeeping, reading, kindergarten and manual training classes, the Mothers, Boys and Girls Clubs and excursions and outdoor activities of the People's Institute. Included with the collection are 35 mm. Copies of original slides 1-32, made in 1998. Forty-two slides are in good condition with no sign of damage. Ten slides are cracked.
Historical NoteReturn to Top
The People's Institute was organized in 1904 to improve living conditions for the women and children in the northern end of Portland. The impetus for the Institute was a report by Valentine Prichard, supervisor of the public school kindergartens and principal of a training school for kindergarten teachers. This report, given in 1902 to Dr. Edgar P. Hill, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, along with Caroline Ladd and her daughter Helen Ladd Corbett, described the deplorable conditions of the women and children in north Portland Unable to provide even the bare necessities for their children, single mothers and their offspring lived in dark, unkempt rooming houses and tenements. Children, surrounded by immorality, often turned to crime, growing up idle and becoming a menace to society. Miss Prichard and a staff of workers visited homes to establish the needs of the women and children and to decide what could be done to help them and to establish the aims of the organization.
The Ladd family donated land at Fourth and Burnside Streets to construct a building for the People's Institute. The first floor housed the Men's Resort, a mission that had already been established by the church, and the second floor housed services for women and children. Caroline Corbett was appointed to form a club to support the effort, and Valentine Prichard was pressed into service as the Institute's organizer. The first meeting was held 1904 November 11; Prichard was voted in as supervisor, officers were elected, and the People's Institute Settlement Work was established. Dr. Hill realizing that the work would need more than one church for support, opened membership to all women who would aid the organization financially or through service.
The aims of the People's Institute centered in four areas--social, educational and industrial, humanitarian, and civic activity. Three centers formed: at Fourth and Burnside (1904 - 1912), Albina, (1912 - 1918), and the South Portland Center at the Fourth Presbyterian Church (1912 - 1915). Each center offered the following services: a kindergarten, sewing school, cooking school, Little Housekeepers Class, Stereoptician Sunday School, gymnasium, lectures for adults, manual training, Girl's Club, Boy's Club, Boy's Brigade, Boy's Printing Club, music, Dramatic Club picture loan, library, free baths, Mother's Club, and the Free Employment Bureau for Women. They also organized and supervised Portland's first public playgrounds in 1906, which they turned over to the Park Board in 1909.
In 1906, after the San Francisco earthquake and fire, the Institute gave clothes, food and medical care to the refugees arriving in Portland. Many doctors and nurses provided free services during the crises, and some expressed interest in continuing free health work, including Drs. Noble Wiley Jones, Edna Timms and Gertrude French. In addition, the Free Employment Bureau for Women found that many women were not fit for employment due to poor health. They tried to interest the city and county in medical aid to the indigent but were foiled in their efforts. In 1907 the Executive Board of the People's Institute decided that the best way to help the poor was to help them to achieve health so that they could help themselves. Hence the Free Dispensary was formed with $30.00 provided by The Mother's Club and was held in the Boy's Club room at Fourth and Burnside. Drs. French, Timms and George Whiteside offered their services as the first attending physicians, while many others were willingly on call. The Visiting Nurse's Association joined the work as well. In the spring of 1909, Dr. Clarence J. McCusker made a report to the University of Oregon Medical School about free medical care being given at the dispensary. The faculty responded by offering to affiliate with the clinic, providing equipment and services to men, as well as to women and children. Mrs. Jacob Kamm donated $1000 for the project, and five more rooms were opened on the first floor of the Men's Resort. The medical school moved the necessary equipment to the new location and supplied a salary of $25.00 per month for an attendant. They requested additional support from the Board of Regents of the University of Oregon, and supplemental funds were acquired by subscription from the Arlington Club of Portland. Later, appropriations from the city and county were provided to meet growing expenses.
George B. Storey, Earnest Tucker and Kenneth A. J. Mackenzie, later made chief of staff, were appointed and authorized as trustees to sit with representatives of the People's Institute, the Visiting Nurses Association and the Men's Resort. On January 10, 1910, the first joint meeting of the organization met, and fourteen physicians from the medical school were assigned to staff the dispensary, now named the Portland Free Dispensary.
Between 1910 and 1913, the dispensary was not extensively used for teaching purposes. But in 1913 attendance became compulsory for students of the medical school. The dispensary grew in size and in service as a teaching center with, according to Larsell and Prichard, Portland's finest and most capable physicians attending. It was moved to larger quarters on 4th and Jefferson Streets in 1916, leaving the Institute's other projects housed at Fourth and Burnside and at the Lower Albina location. By 1921, the dispensary was taken more under the auspices of the medical school as an outpatient clinic. In 1923 a Free Baby Clinic was added and in 1926, under the direction of Drs. Noble Wiley Jones and T. Homer Coffen, administrators of the department of medicine at the University of Oregon Medical School, new specialty clinics were established at the dispensary: a cardiac clinic directed by T. Homer Coffen, an endocrine clinic run by Homer P. Rush, a diabetic clinic under the direction of J. R. Montague and Blair Holcomb and a tuberculosis clinic coordinated by Ralph and Ray Matson and Marr Bisaillon.
The dispensary quickly became overcrowded, and the location was extremely noisy, making examinations and accurate diagnoses difficult. But it was not until 1931, after 24 years, that a gift of $400,000 from the General Education Fund of New York made it possible to move the clinic to the medical school campus on Marquam Hill. The money was given with the understanding that the Portland Free Dispensary would turn over its work and financial resources to the medical school. The four story Outpatient Clinic was built, and the dispensary medical services were transferred to these new and modern facilities, providing better services to patients and instructional clinic opportunities for students.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Restrictions on Use
OHSU Historical Collections & Archives (HC&A) is the owner of the original materials and digitized images in our collections, however, the collection may contain materials for which copyright is not held. Patrons are responsible for determining the appropriate use or reuse of materials. Consult with HC&A to determine if we can provide permission for use.
Preferred Citation
People's Institute and Free Dispensary glass lantern slide collection, Collection Number 1999-010, Oregon Health & Science University, Historical Collections & Archives
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Preservation Note
No special equipment is needed to access the Artifacts series. A light table and magnifier are useful tools to access the Glass Lantern and 35mm slides, but not required.
Acquisition Information
These images were authorized and owned by The People's Institute and the Portland Free Dispensary. They were transferred to the University of Oregon Medical School Library March 15, 1944, by Valentine Prichard and processed by OHSU Library Special Collections staff in the fall of 1999.
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | object | ||
1 | 1 | Correctional exercises, nutrition clinic - children and instructors | undated |
1 | 2 | People's Institute, Portland's first playground - playground | undated |
1 | 3 | People's Institute - child on playground | undated |
1 | 4 | People's Institute, Albina Branch Kindergarten - three children | undated |
1 | 5 | People's Institute, Portland Free Dispensary- two women with baby at door | 1909 |
1 | 6 | People's Institute Camp, Seaside - children on dunes | undated |
1 | 7 | People's Institute, Portland's first playground, organized and supervised - children on playground | undated |
1 | 8 | People's Institute Camp, Seaside - children on dunes | undated |
1 | 9 | People's Institute, Portland's first playground - line of children | undated |
1 | 10 | Portland's first playground, organized and supervised by the People's Institute- children on playground | undated |
1 | 11 | People's Institute - boy, see slide 33 | undated |
1 | 12 | Portland Free Dispensary, nutrition clinic - children being weighed | undated |
1 | 13 | People's Institute Camp, Seaside - girl on the beach | undated |
1 | 14 | People's Institute, 4th and Burnside, cooking school - girls at dining table | undated |
1 | 15 | People's Institute, Albina Branch - children at the door | undated |
1 | 16 | People's Institute, 4th and Burnside, sewing school - Instructors and children | undated |
1 | 17 | Portland Free Dispensary, tuberculosis clinic - woman on scale | undated |
1 | 18 | People's Institute, Albina Branch, Mother's Club - women with children | undated |
1 | 19 | People's Institute, 4th and Burnside - girl | undated |
1 | 20 | People's Institute, Boys Press Club - boys and instructor | undated |
1 | 21 | People's Institute, boys cooking class - boys at work tables | undated |
1 | 22 | People's Institute Kindergarten Luncheon - children eating | undated |
1 | 23 | People's Institute, story hour - children and reader | undated |
1 | 24 | People's Institute Kindergarten, 4th and Burnside - children with instructor | undated |
1 | 25 | People's Institute, boys cooking class - boys at table | undated |
1 | 26 | People's Institute, 4th and Burnside, Boy's Reading Room - boys with attendant | undated |
1 | 27 | People's Institute, girls gymnasium - girls with instructor | undated |
1 | 28 | Portland Free Dispensary, goiter clinic - patients, nurses and doctors | undated |
1 | 29 | People's Institute, Albina Branch, Little Housekeepers - girls making bed | undated |
1 | 30 | People's Institute, Girls Club - singing around the piano | undated |
1 | 31 | People's Institute Kindergarten - children with instructors | undated |
1 | 32 | People's Institute, Little Housekeepers - girls at desks with instructors | undated |
1 | 33 | People's Institute Kindergarten - same boy as in slide 11, shows "before and after" contrast | undated |
1 | 34 | People's Institute, Boys Club - Halloween costumes | undated |
1 | 35 | People's Institute, Boys Club (copy of slide 34) | undated |
1 | 36 | People's Institute, Portland's first playground - 3 children | undated |
1 | 37 | People's Institute, Portland's first playground (copy of slide 36) | undated |
1 | 38 | People's Institute Camp, Seaside - child on beach | undated |
1 | 39 | People's Institute, Albina Branch, Little Housekeepers - girls at table | undated |
1 | 40 | People's Institute, 4th and Burnside, manual training - handcrafts, pottery and weaving | undated |
1 | 41 | People's Institute, weaving - child weaving | undated |
1 | 42 | People's Institute, excursion - children in a pool on a boat or a dock at the sea or a river | undated |
1 | 43 | Portland Free Dispensary, Infant and Pre-school Clinic - children, mothers, nurses and doctors | undated |
1 | 44 | No title - girl | undated |
1 | 45 | People's Institute, Mothers Club - women and children | undated |
1 | 46 | People's Institute, playground - children on teeter-totter | undated |
1 | 47 | People's Institute, boys gymnasium - boys | undated |
1 | 48 | People's Institute, girls cooking class - girls and instructors at table | undated |
1 | 49 | People's Institute, Albina Branch, cooking school - girls | undated |
1 | 50 | People's Institute, Club and Classroom - circle of chairs, composition of room | undated |
1 | 51 | People's Institute, Girls Club - singing around the piano | undated |
1 | 52 | People's Institute - children on merry-go-round | undated |
1 | 53 | 35 mm copies of glass lantern slides | undated |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Outpatient Clinics, Hospital
- Public Health
Geographical Names
- Oregon
Other Creators
-
Personal Names
- Prichard, Valentine (fmo)
Corporate Names
- Portland Free Dispensary (fmo)