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The Lattes papers are made up largely of photographs but also include correspondence, newspaper clippings and other printed material, and certificates.
History and Biography
Raffaele Lattes, a leading US surgical pathologist, was born in Turin, Italy, on May 22, 1910. He received his medical degree from the University of Turin in 1933 and then did further training in pathology and surgery.
In the wake of the enactment of Italian anti-Semitic laws, Lattes immigrated to the US in 1940. After a short time as an instructor at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, he was appointed an instructor in surgery and resident in surgical pathology at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center where he remained for the rest of his career. At Columbia he studied with the renowned surgical pathologist, Arthur Purdy Stout, and succeeded him as Director, Division of Surgical Pathology, in 1951. Lattes did significant research on wound healing and was considered a leading expert on tumors of the soft tissues. He was considered an outstanding teacher and trained many of the next generation of American surgical pathologists.
Lattes retired in 1978 as a professor of surgery but remained active in teaching and research until returning to Italy in the late 1990s. He died on May 28, 2003 in Turin.
Biographical note based on materials in the Lattes biographical file held by Archives & Special Collections.
Organization
Arranged in three series: 1. Documents; 2. Photographs; 3. Oversize Materials.
The Lattes papers are made up largely of photographs but also include correspondence, newspaper clippings and other printed material, and certificates. The photographs largely consist of images of scientific conferences, and formal and informal shots of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center’s Division of Surgical Pathology staff. Although there are no formal portraits of Lattes in these papers, he appears in many of the images.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Gift of Conrad Lattes, grandson, 1999 (accession #99.06.10).
Processed by Stephen E. Novak, February 2020.