1930's UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL MATERNITY WARD PHOTO ALBUM

Item #210

There are twenty-two photographs, a map, and several printed descriptions in this 10.5” x 13.25” black hardcover album from the maternity ward of the University-Hospital Group of Cincinnati, Ohio. The photos are mounted with photo corners on 23 gray paper pages, with one photo loose. Twenty photos measure ~7.5” x 9.5” and the other two are snapshots. According to the two descriptions attached in the beginning of the album, the University-Hospital Group is a complex of hospital and medical educational facilities, including the Cincinnati General Hospital, the Pathological Institute, the College Building, the private Holmes Hospital, and the Children’s Hospital. An historical statement on the lineage of the group is included with the introductory descriptions, as well as a map of the campus and corresponding photo (from the same bird’s eye angle as the map!). Pictured are photos of doctors and nurses, hospital rooms, hallways, an operating room, and more. There are seven photos of a black woman giving birth, covered head to toe in a sheet, in the previously empty pictured operating room – a photo of the delivery doctors using pincher tongs, even a photo of the baby being pulled out of her vagina (!), post-birth vaginal stitching, cleaning the baby, and the baby swaddled next to five other newborns. There are photos of young female nurses and the young all male surgery team, and a gag photo of a doctor posing in stirrups pretending to give birth, with other doctors positioned around him and one holding what appears to be a mummified baby (!!), with the words “THE AEPHUS” taped over the birthing doctor’s bum. There is one group photo on the steps of one of the university buildings, with a loose paper included identifying the people in rows (the group is primarily white males, but includes four white women and two Asian men). The photographs themselves are properly exposed with good lighting and focus, and serve as excellent documentation of activity and facilities at the University-Group, with some twisted doctor humor thrown in. The album is overall in good shape with some scuffing of the hard cover.

Price: $650.00