From the Special Collections & Institutional Archives:
The artifact I’ve chosen to highlight this month is a World War I Troop K military patch, which is a part of the Bailie family collections (MSS 001). The “K” patch is currently on display in Reese Library Special Collections as part of an exhibit detailing the experiences of three Augusta families, including the Bailie family, during World War I. Troop K, which was originally called the Richmond Hussars, formed in Augusta, GA during the 1790s. This particular patch dates to the First World War and belonged to a native Augustan named Glover Bailie. In the note that accompanies it, which was written by Mr. Bailie, he says that the “K” was used by Troop K when they left Augusta in 1916 to travel to Camp Harris in Macon, Ga. Bailie served as the Troop K sergeant at the time. This simple fabric patch is a symbol of the sacrifices many Augusta families made during wartime.
Historically, the Georgia Hussars, of which the Richmond Hussars were a part, served Georgia as part of the Confederate States Army during the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and The War on Terror. The organization continues to this day as part of the Georgia National Guard.
The bulk of Series II of the Bailie family manuscript collection, which contains the “K” patch, is related to the life of Mr. Glover Bailie, Sr. with a focus on his service with the Troop K Richmond Hussars, his World War I service, and the Last Man’s Club. Bailie lived in Augusta the majority of his life. He was a graduate of Richmond Academy and served in both the Mexican Conflict and World War I.
Many of the manuscript collections here in Special Collections deal with military history, most of which chronicle The Civil War, World War I, and World War II. There is also plenty of military ephemera to check out in our ongoing WWI exhibit, including letters, photographs, and newspaper clippings, as well as the “K” patch discussed in this post.
-Maranda Christy, Special Collections Assistant
From the Historical Collections & Archives:
One of the largest free-standing artifacts on display in the Historical Collections and Archives room is a Hamilton Manometer, which was invented by William F. Hamilton, Sr., Ph.D. in the 1930s while he was Chairman of the Physiology Department here on the Health Sciences Campus. The Hamilton Manometer enabled Dr. Hamilton, Dr. Harry T. Harper, Jr., and Dr. Robert A. Woodbury to produce the first print recording ever made of blood pressure pulses in a human on January 30, 1935. This instrument was the first one used to record details of human arterial pressure pulse by means of a needle and hydraulic system. It was the forerunner of modern devices that use the same hydraulic system.
A number of Hamilton manometers were built in the MCG physiology department’s workshop and sold to other research laboratories. Dr. Andre Cournand and Dr. Dickinson Richards were two physician-physiologists who used a Hamilton manometer in their research in the development of cardiac catheterization at Columbia University’s Cardio-Pulmonary Laboratory in Bellevue Hospital. In 1956, Drs. Cournand and Richards along with Dr. Werner Forssmann were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system.”
In his Nobel Lecture, Dr. Cournand acknowledged that his and Richards’ work relied on the accumulated knowledge of other physiologists, but he singled out Hamilton by saying, “and to one, Dr. William F. Hamilton, I owe a more personal debt of gratitude for his constant advice and kind criticism.” His Nobel lecture included pressure pulse tracings that were made using a Hamilton manometer and he stated, “Although the Hamilton manometer was subsequently replaced by a strain gauge in association with electronic recorders, it is well to recall that most of our early knowledge of pressure pulses was obtained by using this device.”
The Hamilton Manometer is on permanent display in HCA (AB-2113). Photographs of the manometer are available to view in the Medical Artifacts collection in Scholarly Commons, the Augusta University institutional repository.
-Renée Sharrock, Curator
About the Heritage Unit: The University Libraries have a department devoted to the preservation and archival keeping of the campus’ unique histories. The Historical Collections & Archives (HCA) is located on the 2nd floor of the Greenblatt Library on the Health Sciences campus. Special Collections & Institutional Archives is located on the 3rd floor of the Reese Library on the Summerville campus.
