Unrestricted.
Minutes of the Babies Hospital Board of Directors and of its Executive Committee, 1892-1943. Besides meeting minutes, the volumes contain extensive additional documentation of the operations of the Hospital, including financial reports, medical reports, and incoming and outgoing correspondence. The volumes covering 1908-1929 are especially full of such material. Executive Committee minutes are bound with the minutes of the meetings of the full Board rather than separately.
History and Biography
Babies Hospital was founded in 1887 by five women “to provide medical and surgical aid and nursing for sick babies.” Originally run by a Board of Lady Managers, the Board of Directors appears to have been established in 1892. From the start, the membership of the Board of Directors was predominately male, though it always included several women. The Board of Lady Managers – later renamed the Board of Women Managers – remained as a women’s auxiliary largely devoted to fundraising.
After several brief stays at various locations, Babies Hospital settled in two houses on Lexington Avenue at E. 55th Street. In 1902, these buildings were replaced with a modern structure where the Hospital remained until it moved to the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center at West 168th Street in 1929.
In April 1933 the Babies Hospital Board of Directors was merged into the Board of Managers of Presbyterian Hospital. However, Babies remained a separate corporation until its complete merger with Presbyterian on Dec. 31, 1943. The pediatric service at Columbia-Presbyterian retained the Babies Hospital name; it was renamed Babies & Children’s Hospital in 1994 and became the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York in 2003.
Organization
Most volumes are indexed.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
On deposit from the Office of the Corporate Secretary, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, March 2009.
Finding aid written by Stephen E. Novak, Dec. 2009.