View the Photographs
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Mr. R. Harvey Self, project man1ager and president of Scrivener Products Newfoundland, a branch of Scrivener Products (Toronto), set up a contract with John O’Reilly, a photographer who worked at Medical Audiovisual Service in the Faculty of Medicine to take photographs of the construction of the Health Sciences Centre. The first photographs were taken before any construction took place. One can see the development of the complex, equipment, several of the many people who were involved with the project, and events that took place. Strikes, for example, slowed progress on more than one occasion.

The first steel of the Health Sciences Centre was erected on Aug. 9, 1972, and the first concrete was poured Oct. 24, 1972. Just fourteen months later the last piece of steel was laid on Oct. 5, 1973. Then on 18 December 1973, the first meeting of the Medical School Faculty Council took place in the Main Auditorium. There are also photographs taken in North Sydney at the time of the C.N. strike in August, 1973. Some of the trailers, carrying equipment for the Health Sciences Complex, were stranded there for a week. The Faculty of Medicine moved into the Heath Sciences Centre beginning in 1974. The General Hospital moved into the HSC in the Spring of 1978.

Description sheets were also created that contained a title which corresponded with each photograph. There are several description sheets missing, nor are there any negatives for those gaps. The final description sheet contains the number 278 but there are only 263 photographs and titles in the collection.

Partnerships

The Lillian Stevenson Nursing Archives and Museum
The Lillian Stevenson Nursing Archives and Museum, Dr. Leonard A. Miller Centre, St. John’s, NL, under the direction of Janet Story, Archivist, graciously agreed to be a partner in the creation of this exhibit. The Health Sciences Information and Media Service (HSIMS), Faculty of Medicine, digitized a set of 263 negatives about the construction of the Health Sciences Centre but the images were in no particular order. 

Upon the kind invitation from Janet Story to come to the Lillian Stevenson Nursing Archives and Museum we discovered index card size description sheets containing both the titles to every photograph and corresponding negative numbers. We also discovered another set of negatives, which were numbered. As a result, the titles and images could now be matched.  The cooperation of the Lillian Stevenson Nursing Archives and Museum made it possible to put this collection together in its original order. The title for each photograph is quite detailed, thus demonstrating clearly the progression of the construction of the Health Sciences Centre. The images and the description sheets have been digitized for this exhibit.

Health Sciences Information and Media Service (HSIMS)
Health Sciences Information and Media Service (HSIMS), Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, kindly agreed to be a partner in the creation of this exhibit.  HSIMS provided numerous images for this project, including the 263 construction photographs.

Copyright
Permission to reproduce the Health Sciences Centre construction photographs this exhibit was granted by the following source:
Material reprinted with the express permission of: Ms. Norah O’Reilly.