Due to the presence of Confidential Health Information (CHI) as defined by Columbia University policies governing data security and privacy, access to some volumes may only be allowed under the terms of Archives and Special Collections’ Access Policy to Records Containing Confidential Health Information.
A collection of notebooks written by over 80 different students ranging in date from 1786 to 1964. Most were created by medical students, but there are notebooks of nursing, dental, and pharmacy students as well.
Organization
The notebooks are arranged in alphabetical order by name of the note taker. Volumes written by anonymous students come first.
This collection of student notebooks ranges in date from 1786 to 1964. They were created by over 80 students – largely medical students, but also including students of nursing, dentistry, and pharmacy. While most of these notes are in bound volume form, there are also loose notes which are now housed in folders and boxes.
The medical notebooks are almost entirely by students at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. Two exceptions are John Kearny Rodgers’s notes from his studies in London with Sir Astley Cooper, Henry Green and John Abernethy in 1817-1818 and notes in German by an unknown student of the physiology lectures of Carl von Voit in 1888-1889, presumably at Munich.
Among the many noted P&S faculty whose lectures are recorded in this collection are Dana Atchley, William Bull, Alonzo Clark, Francis Delafield, William J. Gies, L. Emmett Holt, David Hosack, Smith Ely Jelliffe, Herman Knapp, Charles McBurney, Valentine Mott, Willard Parker, John Augustine Smith, M. Allen Starr, Lewis A. Stimson, T. Gaillard Thomas, and Robert F. Weir.
The notebooks are arranged in alphabetical order by name of the note taker. Following the name, information is in the following order: name(s) of teachers; dates; subjects; and notes.
This is a growing collection. As new acquisitions are added, the list will be updated.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
The collection has been created through donation and purchase since the mid-20th century. In many cases no provenance information is available.
The original organizing and cataloging of the collection were done by Paul Yohannes, Archives Assistant, in 1998. Stephen Novak, Head, Archives & Special Collections, updated and edited the list with the assistance of Cameron Mitchell, 2019.
20 volumes and 1 document box of materials by Frederick A. Wurzbach Jr. were removed and added to a 2021 accession to form a separate personal papers collection.