The story of the ENT clinic of the School of Medicine in Zagreb, its development and continuity was told in several ways until recently, but not based on its rich preserved material heritage. Therefore, the participants of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the ENT clinic considered it important to point out that the representatives of this profession had a strong sensibility for creating collections, maintaining and documenting them. This is how a precious heritage was created, primarily thanks to the efforts made by Dragutin Mašek and Ante Šercer, and for the further preservation of which a number of otorhinolaryngologists are responsible, among whom we particularly highlight Željko Poljak and Ranko Mladina. Due to the richness and completeness of the testimony about the work of the ENT clinic, a large part of this material was included in the scenario of the future permanent exhibition of the Croatian Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy. In this context, the photographic heritage of the ENT clinic will be the bearer of three museum presentation functions: memorial, museological and informational. The preserved photo albums from 1941 and from the period after 1954 have an emphasized commemorative character (remembering the arrangement and organization of the ENT clinic in Zagreb before and after the Second World War) and museological value (testimony to some other reality that no longer exists in that form, and which can be reconstructed and interpreted again and again) and represent a significant source of informations for researchers.

This virtual collection contains two digitized photo albums and 26 individual photos, the photographic heritage of the ENT clinic in Šalata, which was acquired from the School of Medicine in Zagreb for the Croatian Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy in 2016. A representative photo album from 1941 was made by the Donegani photography studio according to the order of the then head of the Clinic, Ante Šercer, and contains 25 photos of the then newly renovated and modernly equipped ENT clinic in Šalata. A more modest photo album by an unknown author that was created after 1954 contains 53 photos showing the building and premises of the ENT clinic in Šalata and the building and premises of the Audiology Center in Draškovićeva street in Zagreb. Among the individual photos, the ones from the time of the head of the department Dragutin Mašek, which were taken in the 1920s in the premises of the ENT clinic at Draškovićeva Street 17 in Zagreb, stand out.

Read more about photo albums in the article published in Liječnički vjesnik 2021:
Fatović-Ferenčić S, Brkić Midžić S. Visual memory of the profession – a gaze at the photo albums of the otorhinolaryngology clinic preserved in the Croatian Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Liječ Vjesn. 2021;143(7-8):310-318. Available at: https://hrcak.srce.hr/261927

The virtual collection is available on the DiZbi HAZU portal: https://dizbi.hazu.hr/a/?pc=i&id=2589704