Because the volumes 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.
The volumes record approximately 5,500 surgical operations performed at Presbyterian Hospital from 1900 to 1912. The entries usually contain the patient's name, age, address, date of admission, and date of operation. In addition, the cause and description of the disease or injury, the condition of the diseased or injured parts at the time of operation, and the progress, complications, and outcome of the operation are often included. Temperature charts, diagnosis reports, and photographs of patients are sometimes found. It is not known if these were all Eliot's operations: the first volume is titled as such, but the remaining two are not.
History and Biography
Ellsworth Eliot, Jr. was born June 6, 1864, the son of Ellsworth Eliot (P&S, 1852) and his wife, Anna Stone Eliot. He was raised in Guilford, CT, and New York City and was graduated from Yale. He received his M.D. in 1887 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) where he was head of his class and winner of the Harsen Prize. After an internship at New York Hospital and further study in Berlin and Vienna, he joined the surgical staff of Presbyterian Hospital in 1893; he remained at the Hospital as an Attending Surgeon until 1918 and was thereafter consultant in surgery until his death. He was Chief of Surgery of Vanderbilt Clinic of P&S from 1895 to 1900 and at various times held surgical professorships at both P&S and the Cornell University Medical College. He died Nov. 2, 1945.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Unknown. Archives & Special has no information on the source of these volumes.