A Look at Charity Hospital, 1906
Almost 100 years after its founding, Charity Hospital moved to Tulane Avenue (then still called Common Street) in 1832 after occupying several sites in or near the Vieux Carre, and on Canal Street. This structure survived for more than a century until its demolition in 1937 to make way for the high rise structure that still stands, though now empty, just a couple of blocks away from the Main Library. The images for this month depict the old hospital. They’re taken from Charity’s 1906 and 1907 annual reports, housed in the City Archives & Special Collection’s State Documents Collection. The photographs are from the 1906 report since none were included in the one for the following year.
The Pathology Department, Surgeon’s Lavatory, and the X-Ray Room are pictured above.
Dr. O. L. Pothier, the Hospital’s pathologist, noted in his section of the 1907 report:
“During the past year the Pathological Department has been totally renovated. The museum has been given proper space and the specimens have been remounted, labeled and indexed. The animal room has been arranged so that it can be properly kept. A record room has been provided, where all the records of the Department are kept. A large and well lighted room for the routine work has been added. On the opposite side of the Department a corresponding room has been arranged so as to give private offices for the Pathologist and the Assistant Pathologist, also proper space for taking photographs. All the records of the Department are kept by the card index system and we are now indexing the photographs by double index of subject and number and will soon have these finished.”
The Hutchinson Home for Female Nurses and the Milken Memorial for Children were both part of the Charity Hospital system.
These pages taken from the 1907 annual report include individual statistics regarding donations, property, faculty and board members, list of graduates, and a “List of the Important Surgical Operations in the Charity Hospital for 1907.”
Pictured here are the first 2 pages of the 20 page list of surgical operations. Elsewhere in the report Dr. Batchelor notes that:
“In the A. B. Miles’ Surgical Amphitheatre 7,106 accident and emergency cases received immediate attention. General anaesthesia was induced 1,589 time, local analgesia, 202 times, spinal analgesia, 258 times, and 2,357 surgical operations were performed.”
The report calculates total “legacies and donations” during the year at $45,000 but does not list individual donors. The 1906 donation lists includes the following: Nath. D. Cook, thirty dozen eggs; Michael Seib, four cases strawberries; Otto Riemann, lot of pretty toys; Lilly M. Schooler, six dolls and six picture books; Mrs. Isadore Newman, assorted cakes; Colgate & Co., eight and a half dozen cans talcum powder; and Mrs. D. A. Milliken, Christmas tree, ornaments and toys for children.
These images previously appeared as part of the Image of the Month in September 2007. Reformatted and edited by Brittanny Silva in 2023.