The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Dentistry is home to a large, historic collection of vintage and contemporary dental articulators, including several that are unique. The collection has been on display at the School of Dentistry since 1955. Articulators are singular indicators of the nature of the changes and progress of dental instrumentation due the profession's better understanding of mandibular movement and occlusion over the past 175 years, and as such, they are important historical artifacts. Among the names associated with the devices on this website are Bonwill, Coble, DiPietro, Fournet, Gambill, Granger, Gritman, Guichet, Gysi, Hagman, Hall, Hanau, Hayes, Homer, House, Kelly, Kerr, McCollum, Monson, Needles, Page, Phillips, Priest, S.S. White, Snow, Stanley, Stansbery, Stuart, Swanson and Wipf, Terrell and Wadsworth.
In 2002, the School of Dentistry was awarded a TexTreasures Grant (8713-03057) from the Texas State Libraries and Archives Commission to photograph and record digital video of these articulators and to catalog them. This website presents these images with corresponding annotations and bibliographic records. Links are available to applicable US patents that can be accessed by number.
The original School of Dentistry project featuring 62 articulators was a joint effort of Dr. Edgar N. Starcke; Leah Krevit, director of library services; Brian Schnupp, senior graphic designer; Arturo Rodriguez, photographer; Darrel Gonzales, Supervisor, AV services; and George Rogers, webmaster; with support from Dr. David Taylor and Dr. Karen Storthz, who was associate dean for research at the time.
Currently, the website is being maintained by Dr. Starcke and Dr. Donald Belles; Brian Schnupp; Kristine Estes, manager of clinical IT and web services; Pam Hanys, senior staff assistant; and Dr. Raymond Koeppen. The primary objective is to provide a depository of information that will serve as a valuable resource for dental educators, students and historians with interests in dental instrumentation. Achieving this objective requires adding historically significant articulators to the site from sources outside the School of Dentistry's collection.
A future objective for this website is to create a link allowing easy access to as many US dental articulator patents as possible.