Construction of the Bellevue Photographic Department, 1868.



1867 resolutions calling for the establishment of a photographic facility at Bellevue were prosecuted in 1868. What follows are excerpts pertaining to the newly formed Bellevue Photographic Department which are quoted from the the hospital report for this year.*


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Pages 131-132:

Schedule of the General Drug Department for 1868 :
Photographic Department.............................$106.35

—J. Frey, Apothecary.


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Page 143:

Many improvements have been made during the past year in alterations and general repairs, and among the most important of them I am happy to record:

1st. The alterations in story over Cook House for a chemical laboratory and photographic gallery.


Page 145:

Photographic Gallery---Put a Skylight in roof over Cook House, 12, by 14 feet; put up a Partition in same room for Photographer, 12 feet long, 6 feet wide, 9 feet high; 1 Table 2 feet by 3, and one 2 feet wide by 8 feet long, with drawers.


Pages 152-153:


One great feature has been added to the Morgue during the past year, viz: that of photographing all unknown bodies (except where they are too much decomposed) brought there for identification. At present, the moment a body is received, a photograph is taken of it and placed in a case, which is suspended on the wall in the Exhibition Room, and is there kept for the space of one year, unless it has been recognized by some relative or friends. The photograph bears the same number as the Morgue Book, consequently it is impossible for a mistake to occur.

—Thomas S. Brennan, Warden.


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Pages 170-171:

Arrangements have finally been completed for the photographic representation of external diseases, and many rare and interesting cases may thus be put on record in a far more simple, accurate, and instructive way, than by the laborious and often imperfect method of written description.

—Henry B. Sands, M. D., Secretary.





* Corporate authors, Ninth Annual report of the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction, New York for the year 1868 ; Albany: Charles Van Benthuysen & Sons, 1869.




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