Christmas Seals - Paul H Weaver MD City Health Officer and keeper of the City Communicable Disease Records

Christmas Seals - Communicable Diseases in Humans - Dr PH Weaver City Health Officer

 Stamps of all types, with their colors, perforations, water marks, we always part of the Weaver household that I was born into in 1947 in Faribault Minnesota.   Never a dull moment it seems.  Now I reflect back, archiving what is worth noting, and selling a few things that no one of the next generation might appreciate.

I remember that Christmas Cards in our family often had the Christmas Seals added and it now occurs to me, that my dad, being the City Health officer, in those days, monitors the infectious diseases in the small city of Faribault.  The days of diptheria, whooping cough, mumps and measles, chickenpox...when immunizations were new and the scare of polio was around....so this 1945 colorful stamp brings warm memories back of addressing the cards to friends and relatives around the world!

 

I discovered a box (add Robitusun cough preparation line with a train on it, gift of AH Robbins) with a label in my mom's pen, "Old (TB) Xmas Seals this week, and these are the examples of the Christmas seals I remember as a kid...1937 -1957)  This was the time of the Weaver stamp collecting hobby and in the early 1960's my mom, got curious about mushrooms and decided to go to graduate school in mycology at the U of Michigan in 1962, the summer after my 9th grade year.

 This photo is labeled April 18, 1952 as the Shattuck School Infirmary, and my dad, PH Weaver with his signature white shirt and bow tie, of that era, with tow of the nursing staff (unknown to me) and a Shad looking at the camera.  Likely the the middle of the era when statistics of city infectious illness was important for epidemiology and learning how to avoid epidemics.  

My dad began his general (family ) practice in Faribault the summer of 1939, taking over for Dr Charles Robilliard for his summer vacation after completing his Swedish Hospital Internship. 

 

Here is my dad's letter of resignation as City Health Officer in 1976, after nearly 37 years of practice in the prairie lakes area of southern Minnesota in and around Faribault.

 Here is the response from the city administrator, also noting that with the change in state law reflecting the change in keep vital statistics, that the job of city health office was being phased out!
Interesting to reflect on my dad's impact during this interesting time in history and medical history as well.

 

I well remember the plethora of First Day Covers in our home. In Stamp Collecting there is special value to have a envelope canceled in the exact day of issue of a new stamp.   Here are Charlie and Will Mayo with the 5 cent stamp cancelled in Rochester MN Sept 11, 1964.

 When order of his colleagues received such a cover, like this one to Dr Bill Furlow, somehow my dad ended up with this one too.