Isadore B. Hirshberg Fonds
1 cm of textual records (in album). – 60 photographs (in album). – 1 framed photograph.
1909-1914
Isadore Benjamin Hirshberg (1890-1965) was born in Bay City, Michigan. He began his medical studies at McGill in 1909 and graduated in 1914. In 1913 he trained at the Alexandra Hospital for Infectious Diseases when John McCrae was on staff. In 1914 Hirshberg interned at the Montreal General Hospital. During the First World War he served at the Canadian Explosives plant at Beloeil Quebec and on his return to Montreal served on the staff of the Jewish Maternity Hospital, the forerunner of the Jewish General Hospital and was one of the latter hospital’s founders.
Fonds consists of photographs and other items that document the early career of Isadore Hirshberg while studying medicine at McGill University from 1909-1914, including 60 album-sized photographs, a framed group photograph of Hirshberg and Montreal General Hospital residents, Hirshberg’s framed provincial medical certificate, and two certificates of residency. Subjects include Hirshberg and classmates; campus and student life; photographs of staff, doctors, and nurses in hospital settings, including two photographs of John McCrae at the Alexandra Hospital; and various views of McGill medical buildings and hospitals, including the new medical building at the time of construction in 1910, the Royal Victoria Hospital around 1910, and the Western Hospital in 1913. Two photographs features the medical school janitor James “King” Cook, a fixture of the school and a favorite with the students from the late 19th through the early 20th centuries. His wife was Frank Buller’s housekeeper during Osler’s time. Fonds also includes a large framed group photograph, Resident Medical Staff/Montreal General Hospital/1914-1915 by Wm. Notman & Son. (34 x 44 cm in frame 37 ½ x 48 cm) and Hirshberg’s Quebec medical license issued by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Quebec and dated July 1914 (44 x 34 ½ cm in 47 x 37 ½ frame). Descriptions of the photographs where present are in Hirshberg’s hand except in cases in which there were additional descriptions in the album. These were copied in pencil on the verso of the related photograph.
Complete inventory list available.
Purchased for the Osler Library from Robert Campbell in 2008. Photographs were removed from an original album that was in poor condition and disintegrating. On verso side of most of the photographs are traces of the original album leaves.
The documents are in English.
Title based on the documents in the fonds.
P198