Because some photographs in the volumes may include Confidential Health Information (CHI) as defined by Columbia University policies governing data security and privacy, access is allowed only under the terms of Archives and Special Collections’ Access Policy to Records Containing Confidential Health Information.
Scrapbooks documenting the activities and personalities of the Columbia University Department of Neurology/Neurological Institute of New York.
History and Biography
Instruction in neurology began at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1875, when Edward Seguin joined the faculty as the Clinical Professor of Diseases of the Mind and Nervous System. Moses Allen Starr succeeded him in 1888, and led the department until 1915, when he was in turn succeeded by Frederick Tilney. When both the medical school and the Neurological Institute moved to Washington Heights to join the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in 1928/29, the chairman of the Neurological Institute became chair of the Department of Neurology, combining the clinical and educational facets of the organizations. In the 20th century chairmen have included Tracy Putnam, H. Houston Merritt, and Lewis P. Rowland.
The Neurological Institute of New York, originally located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, was established in 1909 as the first specialty hospital in the United States devoted entirely to the study and treatment of disorders of the nervous system. In 1925 the Institute affiliated with Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University and became part of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, now known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. The Neurological Institute was merged into Presbyterian Hospital in 1943 but the Department of Neurology is still known as the Neurological Institute, and the terms Department of Neurology and Neurological Institute are used interchangeably. Neurological surgery was part of the Department of Neurology until 1949.
Organization
Scrapbooks documenting the activities and personalities of the Columbia University Department of Neurology/Neurological Institute of New York. Included are correspondence; documents; newspaper and magazine clippings; photographs; programs for events such as lectures, symposia, and dinners; and ephemera. Although items date back to 1917, the bulk of the material is from the second half of the 20th century and internal evidence suggests the scrapbooks didn’t begin to be assembled until the late 1960s. Ten volumes dating from 1917-1997 cover general departmental affairs with particular emphasis on chairmen H. Houston Merritt and Lewis P. Rowland. One volume consists of newspaper clippings documenting the 1987 hospitalization of New York City mayor Edward I. Koch for stroke. Included in this is a copy of Koch’s “An Account of My Recent Illness, August 12, 1987.” There is also one volume made up exclusively of snapshots of departmental events dated 1980-1984.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Transfer from the Department of Neurology, 2005 (accession #2005.04.15).
Inventory of contents done by Cameron Mitchell, 2020-2021. Finding aid written by Stephen E. Novak, 2021.