Tune in to Health

AR.2002.017(63)

Tune in to Health: A Radio Program for Travis County Rural Schools presents photograph selections from the Texas Extended School and Community Health Education Program Records (AR.2002.017).  The collection features over 200 black and white photographs from the 1949-1950 school year of the Healthy Living in Our County radio program, a public health education initiative tailored for Travis County rural schools. Teachers, students, and parents were encouraged to tune in each week to engage in a series of thirty 15-minute educational broadcasts programmed through Radio House at the University of Texas at Austin. Topics ranged from receiving immunizations, balanced diets, fire prevention, and rat control to knowing your doctor and maintaining proper mental health.

The photographs were taken by Willis R. Bodine, a consultant from the Division of Extension who conducted in-person trainings, interviews, and site visits throughout the duration of the radio program. This exhibit provides a rare glimpse into these rural school communities, capturing student activity, school segregation, home living conditions, school infrastructure, and engagement with the Healthy Living in Our County radio curriculum.

As the “Golden Age of Radio” stretched into 1940s, agencies nationwide were exploring the boundaries of radio technology as an educational tool. A collaborative project between the Travis County rural school districts, the Bureau of Research in Education by Radio, and twenty-one cooperating state, local and community agencies, Healthy Living in Our County served as a model for neighboring school districts. The Texas Health Education Council selected the initiative as the number one project to promote in every county in Texas that year.

Tune in to Health: A Radio Program for Rural Travis County Schools is an exhibit curated by Ayshea Khan with the assistance of Steve Schwolert, Mike Miller, and Madeline Moya. Special thanks to Community Archivists kYmberly Keeton and Marina Islas.

Click on the thumbnails below to see some sample images from the exhibit.