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This collection has no restrictions.
Columbia University does not hold copyright to the material.
Correspondence, photographs and prints, and printed materials relating to the Dutch ophthalmologist and physiologist Franciscus Cornelis Donders.
History and Biography
Franciscus Cornelis Donders (1818-1889) was one of the leading figures of 19th century ophthalmology and physiology. He was born in Tilburg, the Netherlands, and educated at the Royal Dutch Hospital for Military Medicine and the University of Leiden (M.D. 1840). In 1847 he was appointed professor of anatomy and physiology at the University of Utrecht where he remained for the rest of his career. Donders did important work on astigmatism and introduced cylindrical lenses for its treatment. He is also known for his work on cognition.
Organization
Organized in 4 series: I. Correspondence; II. Photographs & Prints; III. Printed materials; IV. Oversize.
Collected correspondence, photographs and prints, certificates, and printed material authored by or about Franciscus Cornelis Donders, the eminent Dutch ophthalmologist and physiologist.
The correspondence is largely letters received and dates from 1846 to 1888. Donders was in contact with many notable scientists of 19th century Europe, including some who were outside his field. Figures for whom there is substantial correspondence include Carl Ferdinand von Arlt, Friedrich von Esmarch, Alfred Carl Graefe, Johann F. Horner, Herman Knapp, Hermann Lebert, Richard Liebreich, Julius Mannhardt, Christian G. T. Ruete, Edwin T. Saemisch, Karl Ernst Theodor Schweigger, Rudolf Virchow, Alfred W. Volkmann, and Carl Wilhelm von Zehender.
The photographs are largely cartes de visite and cabinet cards.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Transfer from the Columbia University Department of Ophthalmology, 2022 (accession #2022.058)
Custodial History: The Donders Collection was created by the Columbia University Department of Ophthalmology in the mid-20th century. The largest accession of material appears to have been a gift in the 1930s by faculty member Raymond Pfeiffer of Donders correspondence, documents, and photographs which he received from Donders’ descendant, Paula Krais of Dresden, when Pfeiffer was on a study year in Germany, 1933-1934. Other materials seem to have been added independently of the Pfeiffer gift during the decades when the Department of Ophthalmology had its own library and librarian.
The papers were partially processed by Stephen Novak, 2023. A contents list is available.