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Largely correspondence to Chandler on the topics of disinfectants during the period 1877-1879 and smallpox vaccination in 1886-1888.
History and Biography
Charles F. Chandler, chemist and public health reformer, was born in Massachusetts on December 6, 1836. He received his doctorate in chemistry in 1856 from the University of Göttingen where he studied with the pioneering chemist Friedrich Wöhler. He taught chemistry at Union College, Schenectady, New York until 1864 when he became the first dean of Columbia University’s newly-established School of Mines, currently the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. He remained dean until 1897 and taught until 1910. For most of this same period he also taught chemistry at the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York and chemistry and medical jurisprudence at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Chandler was appointed to New York City’s Metropolitan Board of Health in 1866 serving first as chemist and later as president (1873-1883). While leading the Board he advocated for milk inspection, tenement house reform, and for pure food and kerosene legislation.
Chandler was a founder of the American Chemical Society and the Chemists’ Club and received many honors, including several honorary doctorates and the Perkin Medal from the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry. He died August 25, 1925.
Organization
Generally alphabetically by letter writer, then chronologically.
The papers are largely letters to Chandler on the topics of disinfectants during the period 1877-1879 and smallpox vaccination in 1886-1888. The 1877 letters deal with a controversy over the proper disinfectant to be used in the New York City dog pound while Chandler was serving as President of the Board of Health. The 1879 letters concern a circular on disinfectants he wrote at the request of the National Board of Health.
Correspondents include John Shaw Billings, James Lawrence Cabell, Herman Endemann, Stephen Smith, and Thomas J. Turner. There are also single letters from George F. Barker, Henry A. Bergh, and Elisha Harris.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Accession information is missing. The papers were found interfiled by author surname in the College of Physicians and Surgeons Manuscript Collection which appears to have been created in the mid-1960s. During a re-evaluation and reorganization of the P&S Manuscript Collection in 2018 it was decided to reconstitute the Chandler material as a separate collection.
These Chandler papers don’t appear to have ever been part of the much larger collection of his papers held by Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Collection reorganized and finding aid written by Stephen E. Novak, 2018.