Thursday, August 3, 2023 – MORE PLACES TO DISCOVER MEDICAL HISTORY
FROM THE ARCHIVES
THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 2023
ISSUE# 1051
A MEETING
OF
MEDICAL ARCHIVISTS
JUDITH BERDY
Yesterday I attended the online meeting of the Medical Archivists of New York.
This is a professional group of persons working in medical archives. Most work for major hospital systems and universities in the Metrpolitan area.
Though I am not a professional medical archivist, over the years the RIHS has acquired many papers, publications and information on the subject. We have referred many inquiries to these repositories.
As the meeting progressed I discovered that we on Blackwell’s, Welfare now Rooevelt Island have a connection to most of these institutions.
The first was the Oskar Diethelm Library at NY Presbyterian. I have referred persons their in the past.
About the Oskar Diethelm Library
| Founded in 1936, the Oskar Diethelm Library houses, preserves, and provides access to printed books and serials, archives and manuscripts, photographs, prints, sound and video recordings, asylum reports, and other ephemera and is part of Weill Cornell Medical College’s DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy, & the Arts. The library’s rare book collection contains approximately 35,000 titles dating back to the 15th century dealing with psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis, mesmerism, spiritualism, phrenology, witchcraft and related topics. World-renowned individuals and organizations are also represented in the approximately 1500 linear feet of archives, including Donald W. Winnicott, Thomas Salmon, and the American Psychoanalytic Association. By documenting the evolution of scholarly views on the mind, brain, and soul, the library is a vital national and international resource for the study of the evolution of thinking about mental health and illness. The library is part of the DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy, & the Arts, which has a mission to support, carry out, and advise scholarship on a broad range of issues relevant to the present-day theory and practice of psychiatry. Since its inception in 1958, the Institute has sought to use in-depth studies of the past to enhance understanding of the many complex matters that surround contemporary thinking and practice regarding mental health and illness. Over the last decades, Institute faculty have made critical contributions to debates surrounding matters like de- institutionalization, the history of the mind-brain problem, stereotyping, the scientific status of psychoanalysis, and the conceptual origins of different forms of mental illness.Directed since 1996 by the scholar and psychiatrist Dr. George Makari, the Institute has branched out beyond history to foster studies at the interface of the “psy” sciences and the humanities, including explorations of the arts, medical ethics, and mental health policy. The Institute also hosts the Richardson History of Psychiatry Research Seminar, the longest running colloquium of its type in the United States. It convenes working groups that bring together researchers in specific domains, such as the impact of psychiatry on society, a speaker series on Mental Health Policy, and various educational activities for students. With an open atmosphere that draws a mix of psychiatrists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, historians, ethicists, literary critics, and others, the Institute hopes to bridge studies of the past with science of the future, and connect the domains of science and the humanities, a necessity if our understanding of ourselves is to encompass the overwhelming mix of genes, neurons, brains, minds, selves, families, and societies.The library is open to the public by appointment. To work with the library collection, please contact Special Collections Librarian Nicole Topich, MLIS, at nrt4001@med.cornell.edu or (212) 746-3728 |
| The next was the New York Academy of Medicine. This is usually the first step in historical research. The NYAM has some original mother and baby records from the Maternity Hospital on Blackwell’s Island. NYAM.ORG |
| Mount Sinai Hospital contains records not only from this facility but from others they have acquired, schopol of medicine. They have extensive collections and a wonderful staff dedicated to preserving history. |
| Other institutions including NYU, Rutgers, New York Presbyterian, SUNY Downstate told of their collections and work being done. |
The featured speaker was from New York Medical College. NYMC still has a long standing affiliation with Metrpolita Hospital. Met was housed in the Octagon from 1895 to 1952. There is an extensive collection of art, collections and documents collected by an alumni and donated to the school. Hoping for a visit to Valhalla soon.
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THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
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WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
ED LITCHER RECOGNIZED COLER HOSPITAL WITH THE OCTAGON (THEN METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL TO THE SOUTH)
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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JUDITH BERDY
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THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
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