The University Museum’s nursing collection contains an assortment of medical supplies and equipment, including items no longer in use, or renovated and adapted for safety and efficiency. For students and visitors today these pieces provide a glimpse into medical and nursing history and pique the curious-minded. In this post we take a closer look at this tonsillectomy bag from the 1940s or 1950s. Click on this link for more.For more information, contact Carolyn Connolly, museum coordinator, at piatz@up.edu.
Under the category of CAMPUS LIFE, the 1957 Log has page after page with photos documenting the Welcome Dance, Engineers’ Barn Dance, Twirp Dance, Biologists’ Ball, Musicians’ Ball, Sweethearts’ Ball, Homecoming Dance, and Military Ball. For decades, the campus calendar could be measured against this rhythm of formal and theme dances complementing the daily focus on classwork, library, and exams. For a glimpse into UP social life in the 1950s and 60s, 
What’s old is new again? Six feet = social distancing. Dispersal of crowds. All of which rings a bell. We searched both memory and the University Archives for moments and policies of social distancing in UP’s past. Here is a notable public spaces pronouncement, 1970s style. 
Hello, Sherlock Holmes fans! It’s Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday today. Did you know the Portland & Vancouver Sherlock Holmes Society originated at UP under the direction of Dr. James Covert (“The Grande Olde Honker”)? Here’s the scoop! 
Congratulations
With the unusual circumstances surrounding the 2020 Commencement exercises, the staff of the University Archives and Museum looked through archive files for other commencement interruptions. We found one, in 1948. Visit 
Recently the Student Affairs Division announced winners of the 2019-20 Student Leadership Awards. Congratulations to all of the honored recipients! Did you know the University Museum has one of the University’s oldest student awards (over 100 years old!) in its collection?
The difference in mission between college education and vocational training is to both educate the student for tomorrow while also preparing the student for life; for whatever is there beyond the horizon, the graduate equipped for that which we can’t yet see today. We make explorers and pathfinders! Our students are seekers who respond to the invitation of self-discovery and knowledge that higher education promises. Our community is itself a promise.
The University Archives and Museum continue to comb through our files for examples of the University community’s response in times of trial and disruption. This post reaches back to November 1963. 
The nation came to a standstill in the days following the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and United Airlines Flight 93. As we continue with our series to measure the University community’s response in times of trial and disruption, the UP Archives and Museum focus on reactions to September 11, 2001 for our latest blog post.