Firland Sanatorium, Seattle's municipal tuberculosis hospital, was built in 1911 to treat patients infected with TB, the leading cause of death in Seattle at the time. Originally called the Henry Sanatorium after leading founder Horace C. Henry, Firland was located 12 miles north of Seattle on a 34-acre campus with open-air cottages for its patients. In 1943 King County assumed responsibility for Firland, and in 1947, with demand for beds exceeding Firland's capacity, patients from Firland and the former King County tuberculosis sanatoria, Morningside and Meadows, were moved to a former Naval Hospital at 150th Street and 15th Avenue NE. While this facility was able to accommodate more patients, life in its crowded, impersonal barracks was quite different from the original Firland's restful, secluded wooded campus. By the 1950s antibiotic therapy greatly reduced the severity of the disease. In 1973 Firland was closed and TB patients were moved to mainstream hospitals.

In this photo, patients in caps and gowns receive envelopes from an administrator in this graduation ceremony.

Handwritten on sleeve: SEATTLE, Hospitals, Firland, Graduation of patients.
Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): August 11, 1952