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Correspondence, documents, printed materials, and photographs largely relating to the German-American ophthalmologist Herman Knapp.
History and Biography
Herman Knapp, prominent 19th century German-American ophthalmologist, was born in Germany on March 17, 1832. His given name at birth was Jacob Hermann, but he was always referred to by his middle name which eventually lost its second “n.” He received his medical degree from the University of Giessen and did further work in ophthalmology with William Bowman, Franciscus Donders, Albrecht von Graefe, and Hermann von Helmholtz. Leaving a professorship in ophthalmology at the University of Heidelberg, Knapp immigrated to New York City in 1868. The following year he founded the New York Ophthalmic and Aural Institute, the city’s second eye and ear hospital, and in the same year he established with the German ophthalmologist, Salomon Moos, the Archives of Ophthalmology which was published simultaneously in New York (in English) and Wiesbaden (in German). It would become a leading journal in the field.
Knapp was professor of ophthalmology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1888-1902. He was the author many medical articles and A Treatise on Intraocular Tumors (New York: William Wood, 1869). He died at Mamaroneck, New York on April 30, 1911. His son, Arnold (1869-1956), succeeded him as professor of ophthalmology at Columbia and in 1913 the hospital he founded was renamed the Herman Knapp Memorial Hospital upon its move to a new building at West 57th St. and Tenth Ave. in New York City.
Organization
Correspondence generally in alphabetical order with some inconsistencies; other materials are in more random order.
Correspondence, documents, printed material, and photographs relating to Herman Knapp, the prominent German-American ophthalmologist, created and once held by the Columbia University Department of Ophthalmology. The bulk of the collection is letters to Knapp, 1859-1911. These are from many of the most important late 19th century ophthalmologists and medical scientists in Europe and the United States. Those for whom there is substantial correspondence include Franciscus Cornelis Donders, Otto Haab, Hermann von Helmholtz, Louis E. Javal, Edmond Landolt, Theodor Leber, Carl Ludwig, Photinos Panas, Henry “Jullundur” Smith, and Carl Wilhelm von Zehender. In addition, there is a printed flyer announcing the opening of Knapp’s New York Ophthalmic and Aural Institute; letters to and other material related to his son, Arnold Knapp; and the manuscript of a talk by Helmholtz on his invention of the ophthalmoscope.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Transfer from the Columbia University Department of Ophthalmology, 2022 (accession #2022.058)
Custodial Information: No information on the provenance of this collection has been found. It can be assumed that the bulk of the collection must have come from Herman Knapp or, more likely, one of his descendants. While held by the Department of Ophthalmology it was housed in its John Wheeler Library.
The records are partially processed. Upon acquisition of the collection by Archives and Special Collections most of the letters had been housed in acid-free folders, usually one letter to a folder. The items were numbered from 33 to 365 with many gaps between numbers and with some material unnumbered. There is no indication what happened to the material numbered 1-32, nor to the other missing numbers. A folder list came with the collection; when this was transcribed in 2023 to create an electronic document each item was examined and corrections made to the descriptions where necessary. It is not known who created the original folder list.