Founded on September 1, 1907 as the Baptist Sanitarium, Memorial Hospital began as a two-story, wood-framed building at the end of the trolley line on Lamar and Smith. It had 17 beds and eight trained nurses on staff. It was the second general hospital established in Houston after St. Joseph Hospital which opened in 1887. It was also the second Baptist-supported hospital in the United States.
The Memorial Hospital Photograph Collection contains 4039 photographic prints and negatives from 1903 to 1976 that chronicle the long history of the Memorial Hospital System (originally Baptist Sanitarium and Hospital). The photographs depict the staff, physicians, personnel, departments, nursing school students, faculty and Lillie Jolly (director), facilities and building construction of the Memorial Hospital System. Many of the digitized photos are found in this collection.
