The Stethoscope: News of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center was published by the Office of Public Interest of the Presbyterian Hospital from January 1946 through 1988. For most of its existence the publication's format was a four to six-page broadsheet published ten to twelve times a year (July and August were usually a single issue while there was often no issue in December). Starting in January 1981, the Stethoscope's format changed to a magazine-like appearance with more in-depth coverage of fewer stories than the earlier issues generally had. The number of issues was reduced to six in 1982, to three in 1985-1986, and then increased to four in 1987-1988. The last issue was volume 43, number 4, [Fall] 1988.
The publication covered all the news of what was then called the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, now the Columbia University Irving Medical Center of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital: scientific breakthroughs, new construction, important visitors, holidays, school commencements and much more. Especially in its early years The Stethoscope focused intensely on the activities of Presbyterian Hospital employees and is filled with notices of marriages, births, retirements, deaths, and similar human interest stories. Since existing records poorly document the Medical Center's non-professional staff, Stethoscope coverage is one of the few means of finding information on them. Users should be aware that there is a distinct Presbyterian Hospital slant in news coverage. So, while there is copious news of the School of Nursing - then partially operated by the hospital -- Columbia's medical, dental, and public health schools are often poorly covered.
The Stethoscope was digitized by Archives & Special Collections in 2021; Internet Archive was the vendor. The copies digitized had originally been bound by the Health Sciences Library in two to three year intervals. However, the 1959 issues were somehow never bound and so have been digitized by individual issue. Additionally, several issues in the bound volumes -- Jan. 1966, Jan. 1968, and Nov. 1975 -- were either badly damaged or missing and loose copies from our duplicate set have been substituted for them and digitized separately.
Volume 1, no. 1 - Volume 10, no. 6 (January 1946 - July/August 1955)
Volume 10, no. 1 - Volume 13, no. 11 (January 1955 - December 1958)
Volume 14, no. 1 (January 1959), no. 2 (February 1959), no. 3 (March 1959), no. 4 (April 1959), no. 5 (May 1959), no. 6 (June 1959), no. 7 (July-August 1959), no. 8 (September 1959), no. 9 (October 1959), no. 10 (November 1959), no. 11 (December 1959)
Volume 15, no. 1 - Volume 17, no. 11 (January 1960 - December 1962)
Volume 18, no. 1 - Volume 20, no. 11 (January 1963 - December 1965)
Volume 21, no. 1 (January 1966)
Volume 21, no. 2 - Volume 26, no. 12 (February 1966 - December 1971)
Volume 23, no. 1 (January 1968)
Volume 27, no. 1 - Volume 30, no. 12 (January 1972 - December 1975)
Volume 30, no. 11 (November 1975)
Volume 31, no. 1 - Volume 33, no. 11 (January 1976 - November 1978)
Volume 34, no. 1 - Volume 36, no. 10 (January 1979 - November 1981)
Volume 37, no. 1 - Volume 40, no 6 (January 1982 - November 1985)