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HISTORIC SARANAC LAKE
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Tuberculosis Thursday: Lillian Bibro

10/7/2021

3 Comments

 
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This week's Tuberculosis Thursday is Lillian Wright Bibro! Lilian was a nurse and "hotel manager" at the Santanoni Apartments for 21 years. She's pictured here at the beside of one of the residents of the Santanoni, which was a luxury apartment building for health seekers. Lillian married a patient, Harry Bibro, and moved to Plattsburgh when William Scopes sold the building to Arthur Hay. She lived there until she passed away at the age of 96 in 2008.

Learn more about Lillian and the Santanoni on our wiki.
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Tuberculosis THursday: Nurse Mundie

9/30/2021

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This week's Tuberculosis Thursday feature is Margaret Mundie, R.N.! You may recognize her photograph, as she's featured in the Pandemic Perspectives exhibit. Miss Mundie was Head Nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital when she left to work at Trudeau Sanatorium in 1925.

She was Head Nurse at Childs Infirmary in 1925, and by 1928 she was Head Nurse in charge of the Women's Floor of Ludington Memorial Infirmary. Miss Mundie held the position of Instructor and Assistant Director of Nursing from September 1, 1947 to September 30, 1948. By 1950, she was living with a fellow nurse in New Jersey.

Have you had a chance to experience the Pandemic Perspectives exhibit at the Saranac Laboratory Museum?

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, ACC 2021.4. Courtesy of Trudeau Institute.]
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Tuberculosis Thursday: Mary Bundy

9/2/2021

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This week's Tuberculosis Thursday feature is Mary Bundy. Mary came to cure in the 1940s, and stayed at a few cottages, including the Santanoni. Prior to arriving in Saranac Lake, Mary had worked as a cryptanalyst at Arlington Hall, a secret army operation in Virginia. Mary's father was Dean Acheson, who was serving as Assistant Secretary of State at the time, and later Secretary of State. Her father resigned his position as Assistant Secretary in August 1945, and headed to visit her in Saranac Lake. He wrote in his autobiography, 'Present at the Creation,' "the following morning at the crack of dawn a train began its wandering over most of New York State, bringing us in early evening to Saranac Lake, where the first of several anticipatory celebrations of Japan's surrender was being touched off. Our daughter, looking radiant and well on the way to recovery, was awaiting us in her bedroom."

[Photograph of Mary Bundy, Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR 713. Courtesy of Kay and Marvin Best.]
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Tuberculosis Thursday: Return to Trudeau

8/26/2021

6 Comments

 
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Betty Kelly [Gaffney] about age 21 on the steps of Baker Memorial Chapel, c. 1947. Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR 712. Courtesy of Betty Gaffney.
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Betty Gaffney at age 95 in front of Baker Memorial Chapel, August 25, 2021
This week's Tuberculosis Thursday is a special one. Yesterday we were honored to spend the morning with Betty Gaffney talking about her time as a patient at Trudeau Sanatorium in 1947-1949. Betty came to Saranac Lake after she contracted tuberculosis at the end of her nurse's training at Bellevue. We sat down to record an oral history with Betty and her sister Pauline, and we really enjoyed hearing about their memories of that time.

Betty graciously donated some photographs to our collection, and said she had nothing but good feelings about her time here. We also took a ride over to Trudeau Sanatorium so Betty could tour the campus for the first time in more than 72 years!  We had a great morning with Betty and her family, and we can't wait to share more. Thanks for visiting us and sharing your story!

[Images: Betty Kelly [Gaffney] about age 21 on the steps of Baker Memorial Chapel, c. 1947. Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR 712. Courtesy of Betty Gaffney. Betty Gaffney at age 95 in front of Baker Chapel, August 25, 2021]
6 Comments

Tuberculosis THursday: Christy Mathewson

8/19/2021

7 Comments

 
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This Tuberculosis Thursday, we’re celebrating the belated birthday of a baseball great and big-name TB patient, Christy Mathewson! But who was Christy, and why was he such a big name in Saranac Lake? Christy was considered one of the greatest baseball pitchers of all time, and he contracted TB after WWI. He came to Saranac Lake in 1920 to seek the cure, and originally stayed at the Santanoni under the care of Dr. Edward Packard. In 1924, Christy, his wife, and son moved into the house on Park Avenue that is now known as Christy Mathewson Cottage.

Over the years, Christy’s health slowly improved to the point that he became a part owner of the Boston Braves and got involved with charity efforts to support tuberculosis patients and research. Unfortunately, he was involved in a car accident in 1924 that injured his arm, and by the end of the year his health had deteriorated again. He caught a cold that wouldn’t go away while at spring training with the Braves in April of 1925, and returned to Saranac Lake for bed rest. The baseball world was stunned when he passed away on October 7, 1925. His wife remained in the house on Park Avenue until the 1950s, when she returned to Pennsylvania. Christy was one of the first five inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 along with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Walter Johnson.
7 Comments

Tuberculosis Thursday: Alta Vista Lodge

8/12/2021

34 Comments

 
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Today's Tuberculosis Thursday feature is gone but certainly not forgotten! The Alta Vista Lodge was a grand cure cottage on Franklin Ave. in the Helen Hill neighborhood. It originally began as two separate identical houses, and was combined into one large facility around 1924. It was remembered as an exclusive cottage, and it tragically burned to the ground in 1959.
Learn more about the Alta Vista Lodge on our wiki.
34 Comments

Tuberculosis Thursday: National Friends Day

8/5/2021

11 Comments

 
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Sunday was National Friends Day, so this Tuberculosis Thursday we're sharing a photograph of TB patients at Stony Wold. These young women, including Eileen Leavitt (right) and Carol Smith (second from the right) all cured at the Sanatorium on Lake Kushaqua in the late 1940s. It was common for patients taking the cure to form close friendships, and their shared experience often led to lifelong friendships. While we don't know if these ladies kept in touch, it's clear in the photographs that they enjoyed each other's company at Stony Wold.

[Photograph courtesy of Kevin Leavitt.]
11 Comments

Tuberculosis Thursday: Mammoth Cave

7/8/2021

4 Comments

 
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This Tuberculosis Thursday, we want to share about some interesting TB history from elsewhere in the country. About 40 years before Dr. Trudeau's development of the "fresh air cure" in Saranac Lake, Dr. John Croghan experimented with using caves to treat TB patients. Dr. Croghan purchased Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, hoping that the cool, still air in the caves would improve the health of patients. He brought 16 patients to the cave in the winter of 1842, to live in two stone cabins and eight wooden buildings.

Dr. Croghan's cave sanatorium was unsuccessful, as the damp, dark, unventilated conditions worsened the patients conditions, and five of the sixteen patients died. After just five months, Dr. Croghan returned to the surface with the remaining patients, and abandoned the treatment buildings.

This attempted treatment method is of course in stark contrast to the method developed in Saranac Lake, where patients would spend as much time as possible in the fresh air and sunlight. This postcard (c. 1912) was recently acquired by Historic Saranac Lake and shows tourists outside one of the remaining stone cabins in Mammoth Cave.

If you want to learn more about Dr. Croghan's sanatorium in Mammoth Cave, check out this fascinating article from Mammoth Cave National Park.

[Historic Saranac Lake Collection, TCR 666.]
4 Comments

Tuberculosis Thursday: National Postal Worker Day

7/1/2021

4 Comments

 
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It's National Postal Worker Day AND Tuberculosis Thursday, so who better to highlight than Grace Griffiths Davies? Grace came to Stony Wold Sanatorium as a TB patient, and after she recovered, worked as Postmaster of the Lake Kushaqua Post Office (later renamed Stony Wold, then Onchiota/White Fathers). She was the third and final Postmaster of this office, beginning in 1924. She raised her son Sherwood at Stony Wold, and he returned there as a patient when he was diagnosed with TB in 1937.

Today we say thanks to our Postal Workers, past and present!

The story of Grace and Sherwood's lives at Stony Wold are on our wiki, so head over to learn more.

[Photograph of Grace Griffiths Davies, 1911. Courtesy of Sherwood Davies.]
4 Comments

Tuberculosis Thursday: Dr. Baldwin

6/24/2021

4 Comments

 
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This Tuberculosis Thursday, we're sharing one of our favorite history dads! Dr. Edward Baldwin is one of the fathers featured in our special mini exhibit on view through the end of this week. Dr. Baldwin came to Saranac Lake to cure from tuberculosis at the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium (later Trudeau Sanatorium). There he met Dr. Edward L. Trudeau, who was astonished to hear that Dr. Baldwin had used a borrowed high school microscope (on display here) to diagnose his own case of TB. Dr. Trudeau invited him to work at the Saranac Laboratory, and the Baldwins moved into a home across from the Trudeaus on Church Street. Dr. Baldwin and his wife Mary Caroline Ives had one son, Henry Ives Baldwin.

Learn more about Dr. Baldwin on our wiki, and be sure to come in to see our history dads mini exhibit this week!
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Historic Saranac Lake at the Saranac Laboratory Museum
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Historic Saranac Lake is funded in part by:
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​© 2021 Historic Saranac Lake. All Rights Reserved. Historic photographs courtesy of the Adirondack Room, Saranac Lake Free Library, unless otherwise noted. Copy and reuse restrictions apply. ​
  • Visit
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    • Trudeau Building
    • Architectural Preservation
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      • Pandemic Perspectives
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