UCSF's Depression-Era Medical History Murals

Unfinished History

In 2015, the University of California San Francisco opened its Toland Hall to the public for a rare 2-week opportunity to see the remarkable murals painted by Bernard Zakheim and Phyllis Wrightson in the 1930s. The series of panels depicts a complicated social history of medicine in California. As of June 2020, UCSF is threatening to destroy these murals as part of a plan to tear down Toland Hall and build a large new medical office building on its site.

Toland-Hall all P1020596.jpg

Inside Toland Hall during the brief period in 2015 when the murals were open to public viewing.

Photos: Chris Carlsson

Toland-Hall plaque-explanation P1020571.jpg

Toland-Hall herbs P1020608.jpg

Local first peoples offering the three most significant herbs to Padre Junipero Serra: yerba santa, cascara sagrada, and grendelia.

Toland-Hall 19th-century P1020623.jpg

Dr. John S. Griffin can be seen examining a soldier suffering from malaria. Across from Dr. Griffin is Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney, a member of the first class in the Toland Medical School in 1865, who later helped found and presided over the University of Southern California.

Toland-Hall smallpox-etc P1020615.jpg

Toland-Hall wall-w-bubonic P1020580.jpg

The panel on the left is dedicated to the field of science as a whole—past, present, and future. The large wheat in the center symbolizes the early development of modern science, called into existence by the necessity of the troubled humans in the foreground. The bearings upon which this wheel turns are engraved with the names of the men who laid the foundation for present scientific knowledge.

Toland-Hall bubonic-declaration P1020587.jpg

Authorities making their declaration about bubonic plague in San Francisco, c. 1900.

Toland-Hall P1020591.jpg

Toland-Hall lively-flea-and-declarations-on-James-King-of-William P1020590.jpg

Conflicting declarations on the death of James King of William that gave rise to the second Vigilante Committee hangings in San Francisco.

Toland-Hall plaque-explanation P1020595.jpg

Credits panel

Toland-Hall Medical-research P1020616.jpg

This panel's wood framing is remarkable in its own right.

Toland-Hall wood-panel-w-animals P1020636.jpg

Toland-Hall P1020637.jpg

Toland-Hall Doctors-and-history P1020628.jpg

This panel is dedicated to the multiple activities of the University of California Medical School. The same sunburst design is evident, this time radiating from a guinea pig which is meant to represent research. In the upper left corner is Dr. Lucy Wanzer, the first woman to enter the school. Among the group of men occupying the center of the picture are Dr. Herbert C. Moffitt, the most distinguished clinician on the Pacific Coast at the time, and Dr. Robert Langley Porter.

Toland-Hall doctors P1020631.jpg

Toland-Hall P1020566.jpg

Toland-Hall fruits P1020633.jpg

<iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/cum_000015" width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Toland Hall Murals: an Oral History with Chauncey Leake in 1976. Dr. Leake discusses the frescoes painted by Bernard Zakheim in Toland Hall at the University of California, San Francisco. Helen Nahm, Dean emeritus of the UCSF School of Nursing (1958-1969) also participated in this program.

Video: UC San Francisco via the Internet Archive

<iframe src="https://archive.org/embed/cum_00001" width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Dr. Robert Schindler (Chair emeritus of the UCSF Department of Otolaryngology) presents a video tour of the murals painted by Bernard Zakheim in Toland Hall at the University of California, San Francisco in 1996.

Video: UC San Francisco via the Internet Archive