Corner
Photos from the ILOTA Archives
Ashley Stoffel, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA
An Occupational Therapy Student works with a young
patient using an adapted reading system in UIC’s
Respiratory Poliomyelitis Center, 1955. Prior to the establishment of formal OT curricula, early OT
students delivered clinical services under the guidance of
expert therapists in recognized teaching units at University
of Illinois hospitals.
From 1944-45, UIC fulfilled a request from the Surgeon
General to offer three short post-BS “War Courses”. These
fast paced courses trained occupation therapists to aid in
World War II. An occupational therapy student leads a pediatric music
group at the University of Illinois Hospital’s Outpatient
Occupational Therapy clinical teaching unit in Chicago,
1945.
OT pioneers Helen Willard and Sidney Bottner at the Greenhouse at Hines Hospital in Maywood, Illinois, 1924.
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