The collection is stored off-site. Researchers will need to request this material from Archives & Special Collections at least two business days in advance to use the collection in our reading room. Generally, Archives & Special Collections will not recall more than 6 cartons at a time.
The reprint collection documents plastic and reconstructive surgery during the first three quarters of the 20th century. It is international in scope with articles in all the major European languages, though English-language works predominate. Plastic surgery is covered in the broadest sense: there are many articles on oral surgery, burns, skin grafting, and other ancillary subjects as well. Though items date back to the early 20th century, the majority post-date 1920. Collecting appears to have ceased in Feb. 1976.
History and Biography
Jerome Pierce Webster was one of the leading American plastic surgeons of his time and the founder of the Division of Plastic Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins in 1914, served in the US Army Medical Corps in France during World War I and was the first surgical resident at Peking Union Medical College upon its opening in 1921. He came to Columbia in 1928 at the urging of department chair Allen O. Whipple and remained until his death in 1974.
Webster was a historian and bibliophile as well as surgeon. He was co-author, with Martha Teach Gnudi, of The Life and Times of Gaspare Tagliacozzi, Surgeon of Bologna, 1545-1599 (1950), the only full-length biography of this Renaissance plastic surgeon in any language. The work won the Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine in 1951. To aid him in his research, Webster created what is perhaps the most comprehensive library in existence on the history of plastic surgery. This reprint collection formed part of it and was maintained in the Webster Library of Plastic Surgery, located in the Dept. of Surgery, until it came to Archives and Special Collections in the late 1970s.
Organization
Reprints in the first 39 boxes are arranged in simple numerical order from 1 to 26, 665. These reflect the order in which the library received them, not the date of publication. Items in boxes 40-46 are unnumbered but instead are arranged chronologically by date of receipt; they cover the period Oct. 1970 through Feb. 1976. By this time, the library was largely collecting contemporary material and the date of publication is roughly equivalent to the date of receipt. Items in boxes 46-50 were considered "supplementary" material, usually older articles that had been missed earlier. They are given "S" numbers up to 3,599 and cover a very wide date span. Collecting appears to have ceased in February 1976.
An author/subject card catalog made up of both typewritten and handwritten cards and evidently contemporary with the creation of the collection, is available in Archives & Special Collections. The department also holds an incomplete inventory arranged in numerical order.
| Box | Items |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1-599 |
| 2 | 600-999 |
| 3 | 1000-1599 |
| 4 | 1600-2199 |
| 5 | 2200-2799 |
| 6 | 2800-3499 |
| 7 | 2800-3499 |
| 8 | 4200-4999 |
| 9 | 5000-5599 |
| 10 | 5600-6299 |
| 11 | 6300-6899 |
| 12 | 6900-7599 |
| 13 | 7600-8299 |
| 14 | 8300-8999 |
| 15 | 9000-9699 |
| 16 | 9000-9699 |
| 17 | 10,400-11,099 |
| 18 | 11,100-11,799 |
| 19 | 11,800-12,499 |
| 20 | 12,500-13,299 |
| 21 | 13,300-13,899 |
| 22 | 13,900-14,599 |
| 23 | 14,600-15,199 |
| 24 | 15,200-15,799 |
| 25 | 15,800-16,599 |
| 26 | 16,600-17,199 |
| 27 | 17,200-17,899 |
| 28 | 17,900-18,699 |
| 29 | 17,900-18,699 |
| 30 | 19,300-20,099 |
| 31 | 20,100-20,799 |
| 32 | 20,800-21,499 |
| 33 | 21,500-22,199 |
| 34 | 22,200-22,899 |
| 35 | 22,900-23,599 |
| 36 | 23,600-24,299 |
| 37 | 24,300-25,099 |
| 38 | 25,100-25,799 |
| 39 | 25,800-26,599 |
| 40 | 26,600-26,665; Oct. 1970-Feb. 1971 |
| 41 | Mar.-Sept. 1971 |
| 42 | Oct. 1971-Mar. 1972 |
| 43 | Apr.-Sept. 1972 |
| 44 | Oct.-Dec. 1972; Jan-Apr. 1974 |
| 44a | Jan.-July, 1973 |
| 44b | July-Dec., 1973 |
| 45 | May 1974-Apr. 1975 |
| 46 | June 1975-Feb. 1976; S1-499 |
| 47 | S500-1399 |
| 48 | S1400-2199 |
| 49 | S1400-2199 |
| 50 | S3000-3599 |
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Bequest of Jerome P. Webster; received sometime after his death in 1974.