Author: Philip Skroska

Contact me about:
  1. Permission to publish images from the Becker Archives
  2. Requesting photographs of former School of Medicine faculty and students
  3. The Washington University School of Medicine Oral History Project
  4. General questions about the archival collections at Becker Library
Archives and Rare Books

Oppenheimer: Washington University’s connections to an American Prometheus – Part 1

By — April 1, 2024

Christopher Nolan’s Academy Award winning 2023 film Oppenheimer is based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s 2005 biography of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The movie cleverly compresses several decades of Oppenheimer’s life around his leadership in building the first atomic bomb and his subsequent political blacklisting during the McCarthy era. Although none are  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

“Should Old Acquaintances Be Forgot?”

By — December 15, 2023

What makes a good memory? How about a good meal? For members of the Washington University medical center who served with Base Hospital 21 during the First World War, special dinners were an important part of maintaining morale for the unit’s doctors, nurses, and enlisted men who were often overwhelmed with the wounded soldiers streaming  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

The origin story and impact of Queeny Tower

By — June 30, 2021

Becker Medical Library’s visual collection archivist, Philip Skroska, leads a walking tour through time in this brief history of Queeny Tower, a long-time landmark at the Washington University Medical Center, currently being demolished.

Archives and Rare Books

The 75th Anniversary of the End of World War II

By — April 12, 2021

The end of World War II brought elation for some. The staff and patients of the 21st General Hospital, the US Army reserve hospital staffed by members of the Washington University medical community, were almost certainly among those in celebration. The personnel of the 21st had served continuously since 1942 and shared an immense relief  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

Queeny Tower Controversy

By — June 14, 2019

A new exhibit titled “That Was Then: An Architectural History of the Washington University Medical Center” is on display through Aug. 16 on the seventh floor of Bernard Becker Medical Library. Through a series of before-and-after photographs, the exhibit shows how the medical campus has changed over the past 100 years. One building in particular  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

Margaret G. Smith, medical pioneer

By — April 5, 2019

Margaret Gladys Smith, MD, was the first woman to head a department at Washington University School of Medicine, serving as the de facto chair of the Department of Pathology after the sudden death of Howard A. McCordock, MD, in November 1938. Until the appointment of a new chair in July 1939, Smith led the department  [Read more]

Archives and Rare Books

WWI Base Hospital’s Post-War Newsletters Now Available Online

By — December 20, 2018

Base Hospital 21 – the World War I U.S. military hospital base in Rouen, France that was staffed by doctors and nurses of the Washington University Medical Center and civilian volunteers from the St. Louis area – served with distinction during the war and after. Following the armistice ending the war on Nov. 11, 1918,  [Read more]

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