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Correspondence written during his military training and deployment in France during the First World War; and correspondence, academic papers, notes, drawings, reports, photographs, reprints, and films documenting the life and career of Dickinson W. Richards (1895-1973). He attended Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons (M.A. 1922; M.D. 1923) and became a faculty member (1925-1973). He served as Intern (1924) and Resident (1925-1927) at Presbyterian Hospital, with later positions there (1928-1961) and at Bellevue Hospital (1933-1961), and consulted for Merck & Co. Richards received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1956, along with André Cournand and Werner Forssmann for their work relating to heart catheterization.
History and Biography
Dickinson Woodruff Richards, Jr. was born in Orange, New Jersey on October 30, 1895 to his father, also D.W. Richards and mother, Sally. He had three sisters: Katherine, Josephine, Gertrude, and a brother Edward. He attended Yale University (B.A. 1917) and upon graduation, joined the United States Army, serving as an artillery officer in France at the end of the First World War. In 1919, he was discharged and entered Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons (M.D. 1923). In addition to his medical degree, he also received a Master of Arts degree (1922) in physiology under the guidance of Professor Ernest L. Scott.
He taught at Columbia beginning in 1925 and served as Intern (1924) and Resident (1925-1927) at Presbyterian Hospital, with later positions there (1928-1961) and at Bellevue Hospital (1933-1961). Before 1968, Bellevue Hospital’s First Medical Division was staffed by faculty from Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons. During this time, he collaborated with André Cournand at Bellevue Hospital in the fields of pulmonary and cardiac diseases. Dickinson, along with Cournand and German physician Werner Forssmann, received a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1956 for “their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system.”[1]
Dickinson also served as Scientific Director (1937-1950), among other roles, to the Merck Institute and edited the Merck Manual. The Merck Company Foundation endowed a professorship in medicine in his honor at Columbia University in 1968. He co-authored the book, Circulation of the Blood: Men and Ideas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964) with Alfred P. Fishman, and Medical Priesthoods and Other Essays (Connecticut Printers, 1970). He received the Trudeau Medal from the National Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association (1968), the Kober Medal from the Association of American Physicians (1970), and the Diamond Jubilee Medal from Bellevue Hospital (1973).
He retired from Presbyterian and Bellevue hospitals in 1961, serving as a medical consultant for a number of years. He died in Lakeville, Connecticut on February 23, 1973 at the age of 77.
[1]"The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1956." The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1956. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
Organization
Arranged in three series: Series I. Accession #2013.010; Series II. 2017.008; Series III. Bound Reprints.
These papers contain correspondence written during his military training and deployment in France during the First World War, and correspondence, academic papers, notes, films, reprints, and other material documenting his career as a physician and research physiologist at Columbia University, Bellevue and Presbyterian Hospitals, and the Merck Institute.
Series I. Accession #2013.010 consists of correspondence, academic papers and talks in the form of manuscripts and reprints; notes, drawings, reports, a photograph album and films document the life and career of Richards. Of note are black and white photographs of Richards and colleagues housed in a custom-made album presented to Richards by Merck & Co; and moving pictures depicting Richards and other recipients honored at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden in 1956. Folders are arranged alphabetically.
Series II. Accession #2017.008 consists of letters from Dickinson to his family--the bulk to his mother, Sally--during his military training and service in France during the First World War.
Series III. Bound reprints are five volumes of Richards’ writings including scientific articles as well as addresses, essays, and memorial statements, circa 1920s-1960s.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Gift of Mary Chamberlin (granddaughter), 2013 and 2017 (Accessions #2013.010; #2017.008). The 2017 was also the gift of Abigail Woodruff Russell Prior. The bound reprints were a gift of André F. Cournand, circa 1982 (no accession number).
These papers consist of two accessions. The first arranged and described prior to the latter. Photograph album and film physically were separated for preservation. World War I letters were removed from envelopes and with postmark date indicated on letter. Duplicates and copies found in the Cournand papers were deaccessioned.
After a reappraisal of the department's reprint collection in 2021, it was decided to add the bound reprints to the papers.