Introducing the Becker archives roadshow

By — October 13, 2026

Becker Library is pleased to announce a new series of events — the Becker archives roadshow — that will begin in the Fall of 2026.

Graphic for the Becker Archives RoadShow featuring Washington University School of Medicine over a faint image of the St. Louis skyline.

The Becker archives roadshow is intended to highlight interesting and fun aspects of the 100+-year-old WashU Medicine campus, while also increasing awareness of Becker Library’s wonderful archival collections.

On most days, Becker Library’s archival collections can only be accessed in Schwartz Reading Room on the 7th floor.  But on Becker archives roadshow days, Becker Library’s archivists will be featuring collection material at other locations on the WashU Medicine campus. 

Each roadshow will be a themed event, and the theme will be highly relevant to the date the roadshow falls on.  For instance, the inaugural Becker archives roadshow will be held on November 17th, which is the week before Thanksgiving.  The theme for this roadshow is:  Food, Recipes, and Parties! 

Becker archives roadshow, November 2026 edition

A slice of frosted chocolate cake on a plate above the printed recipe for “Potato Fudge Cake.”
This recipe for potato fudge cake was originally printed in 1926 as part of a 36-page pamphlet Cake Secrets, which included dozens of dessert recipes using Swans Down Cake Flour.  An original copy of Cake Secrets is held by Becker Archives within the Hilton I. Price Collection of Historical Postcards and Ephemera [VC087-B06].

The Becker archives roadshow November 2026 edition will be held on November 17 from noon to 2 p.m. in the FLTC first floor atrium.  All are welcome to attend.  Click here to add this event to your calendar. One of the items we’ll be featuring at this food-themed event is the cookbook titled, Confessions of 211 St. Louis Housewives and Bob Hope: Or, What’s Going on in Their Kitchens!  As explained in an earlier blog post, this cookbook with the unusual name was published as a fundraiser for St. Louis Children’s Hospital in 1967.  The Becker Archives holds fundraiser cookbooks from other local hospitals as well.  Barnes Hospital’s Heart Center sponsored an entire series of “heart healthy” recipe cards in the 1980s.  And we have vintage cookbooks from the 1920s to share with you too.  You will be amazed to see what people were eating a hundred years ago!

Becker archives roadshow, February 2027 edition

Two side-by-side black and white photographs: a couple standing outdoors and a couple laughing while seated at a table.
LEFT:  Evarts Graham (Bixby Professor of Surgery) and Helen Tredway Graham (Professor of Pharmacology)  [VC049116].

RIGHT:  George Bishop (Professor of Neurophysiology) and Ethel Ronzoni Bishop (Associate Professor in Biochemistry)  [VC034124].

After the winter break, the Becker archives roadshow will return on February 11, 2027.  As this event falls just a few days before Valentine’s Day, our theme will be WashU Medicine Love!  This event will highlight a few of the many faculty couples that have worked on the medical campus together including George Bishop and Ethel Ronzoni Bishop, Martin and Ruth Silberberg, Carl and Gerty Cori, Evarts and Helen Graham, and Richard and Mary Bunge to name just a few.  And of course, we’ll be bringing back the Becker Archives Valentine’s cards featuring archival images from our magnificent collection of medical campus photographs.

Becker archives roadshow, April 2027 edition

A group of men in suits surrounding a child sitting in a wheelchair and another child standing in a robe, with one man holding a toddler.
St. Louis Cardinals players Stan Musial, Terry Moore, Eddie Dyer, Vernal “Nippy” Jones, and Enos Slaughter visiting patients at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, 1949. [VC008326]

The April 1, 2027 Becker archives roadshow is scheduled to fall on an annual holiday for local St. Louisans: opening day for the St. Louis Cardinals.  Long before the Hudlin tennis courts appeared on the medical campus, there were baseball diamonds directly across the street from Barnes Hospital. You can see WashU Medicine students and faculty playing on them in this blog post from 2021. And did you know WashU had a women’s baseball team in the 1920s?  We’ll show you pictures of the team in action.  You’ll see photographs of Stan Musial, and other Cardinals fan favorites, visiting patients at campus hospitals.

Stay tuned for more details about the time and location of the two Spring events!

Six anthropomorphic items including a blueprint, an airmail envelope, a handwritten letter, a cassette tape, a black and white photograph, and a Nobel Prize medal.