Chiro-Picker’s Fresh Pick — Finding the Three-Story Scrapbook

November 15, 2013, 12:30 am
Filed under: Chiro-Picker, chiropractic history | Tags: BJ Palmer Scrapbook, Chips from Sweet Home, Chiro-Picker, chiropractic history, DD Palmer, Gary Street DC, Merwyn Zarbuck DC, Palmer School of Chiropractic, Todd Waters

Updated Picker Image by Todd Waters, aka “The Chiro-Picker” – SpinalColumnRadio featured blogger

As I wrote in a recent Fresh Pick installment, I enjoy collecting stories and treasured memories from people who have a connection with Chiropractic’s early years — tales, which I often find escape our chiro-history texts. While these stories can sometimes be difficult, if not impossible, to fact-check, I still find that they allow me to be a better ChiroPicker. For they often provide missing clues — acting as that needed breadcrumb — to bring me (and I’m sure other chiro-historians) closer to unearthing other great discoveries.

Here’s another one of my favorites:

Dr. Gary Street joined up with the now late Dr. Merwyn Zarbuck to assist him in his twenty-five year quest for BJ Palmer’s scrapbook.

BJ, as you may know, wrote about his scrapbook in the Green Book series and stated it was not actually a book per se, but files upon files of anything and everything documenting chiropractic’s history from its conception.

The scrapbook contained notebooks, journals, newspaper clippings, publications, and letters.

And while BJ wrote about this compilation, he did not state where it was kept — which would have been a big deal, because the files were rumored to have occupied three floors!

Surely, a collection this large would be easy to find after a cursory search about the campus. But then again, the references to BJ as “The Little Builder” were not made in vain. He was constantly constructing additions at the Palmer School — acquiring neighboring properties for expansion to allow him to interconnect his buildings. Perhaps during these structural revisions the three-floor-scrapbook got “misplaced.” Continue reading →

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Chiro-Picker’s Fresh Pick — Saving the Writing on the Wall: BJ’s Epigrams Gain New Life

October 25, 2013, 12:30 am
Filed under: Chiro-Picker, chiropractic history | Tags: BJ Palmer, Chips from Sweet Home, Chiro-Picker, chiropractic history, elevator shaft, epigrams, Palmer School of Chiropractic, Robert Borer DC, Todd Waters

Updated Picker Image by Todd Waters, aka “The Chiro-Picker” – SpinalColumnRadio featured blogger

You can imagine that as the ChiroPicker, my eyes are always open looking for cool vintage items that represent the history of chiropractic. Sometimes these items are not the dusty, old antiques you’d expect. Sometimes they are not even something you can hold — like stories. For this particular Fresh Pick installment, and the couple that follow, I want to share some of these finds.

I love the story of Dr. Robert Borer’s search for BJ’s original epigrams. Epigrams, of course, are pithy sayings or remarks that express an idea or concept in a cleaver and amusing way. To say that BJ had an affinity for them would be an understatement for sure.

Up to the year of BJ’s death the Palmer School of Chiropractic was covered with these thought-provoking quotes — from the bathroom walls to the sides of the buildings.

All free wall space was fair game. “Get the Big Idea. All Else Follows” and “The Power that Made the Body, Heals the Body” are just two examples (more here).

However after BJ’s passing, his son David assumed the presidency of the school and had the epigrams painted over in favor of a fresh coat of paint. Most did not survive the Palmer College of Chiropractic’s facelift, but a few did. One area where the “writing on the wall” still can be seen is on top of the D.D. Palmer Memorial Building (Up’E’nuf). It was here that the epigrams were actually etched into the roof ledge walls — a technique that was certainly safe from the brush of paint.