Showing 74 results

Archival description
E. V. Cowdry Papers Series
Print preview View:

Published papers, cancer research at Washington University, 1933-1950.

In 1937 EVC became director of research at Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital, succeeding Major G. Seelig, who earlier had taken the position held at the hospital by Leo Loeb. In 1948 EVC moved the cancer research operations to laboratories at Washington University School of Medicine. These two volumes display the continuity of the investigative program and the work of the team of scientists behind it during those years. Not microfilmed.

Published papers, contributions from the Peking Union Medical College, Department of Anatomy, 1918-1920.

Volume 2 in this series was probably EVC's own compilation of work published during his chairmanship of the department. Volume 3 and Volume 4 were evidently gifts to EVC from Davidson Black, who succeeded him as head of the PUMC Anatomy Department. Whether or not EVC also received the remaining volumes, or perhaps later-issued volumes, is not known. The individual reprints in all of the volumes in the collection are numbered. They begin in strict chronological order, but occasionally as noted, delays in obtaining certain publications necessitated enumeration based on the order that the items were received.

Published papers and chapters of books, 1911-1971.

This is a complete list of EVC's publications. With respect to the actual copies of his short scientific publications and essays that are in this archival collection, the list for the most part corresponds to the contents of four bound reprint volumes containing work through 1965. The volumes do not exactly match the order of the list, but roughly the dates covered in each are: vol. 1, 1911-1924; vol. 2, 1924-1933; vol. 3, 1933-1942; vol. 4, 1942-1965. Maintained with them are two variant "vol. ones" and several files of reprints that are missing from the set. Listed here as well are various editions of EVC's monographs and the scientific compilations edited and published as books (e.g., General cytology). Most (but not all) of the book-length publications are in the collections of the Becker Medical Library. The series as a whole is not microfilmed.

Annotated wall calendars, 1959-1972.

EVC is not known to have kept a formal diary, but, like numerous other persons with complicated careers, jotted down reminders of selected events in his life on a series of wall calendars. Exactly how early this practice began is not known: what we have here are mostly from his years of official retirement. The items seem to have been used at his office in the Anatomy Department, rather than his residence, and some of them bear inscriptions in hands other than his. Not microfilmed.

Sound recordings, 1951-1952.

The series consists of two unrelated recordings. One is a seven-inch reel tape containing the soundtrack of a film, now lost, that covered highlights of the Second International Gerontological Congress of 1951 (see also Series 66). It includes an excerpt of an address by EVC along with remarks by several other conference notables. The second is a 33 rpm radio transcription disk containing a speech given by EVC as a World Cancer Day event dated March 27, 1952. Not microfilmed.

East Coast fever experiment log books, 1930.

In 1930 EVC accepted an invitation from the British Colonial Office to investigate East Coast fever, a tick-borne cattle disease that seriously affected herds in Kenya. EVC traveled in that year to British East Africa, following which he and his assistants succeeded in isolating the parasite. The early course of the investigation is documented in two red cardboard-bound log books, dated May 15 to August 1 [1930], with most of the entries made by an assistant (Arthur W. Ham?), but with long undated drafts of the report in EVC's own hand at the end of Book 2. The final published version of the report appeared in two parts in the journal Parasitology under the title Studies on East Coast fever (1932, 1933; see bibliography in Series 72). Not microfilmed.

Rockefeller Institute monthly expense books, 1924, 1927, 1928.

The Rockefeller Institute apparently encouraged its professional staff to record expenses in small (2 by 4 inch) paperbound notebooks. EVC apparently did not feel compelled to enter data to the fullest extent possible. The 1924 and 1927 books, nevertheless, afford some interesting jottings about his travels in Europe and North Africa. The 1928 book, which related to his coming to St. Louis, is less informative. Not microfilmed.

Press clippings from scrapbooks on the Fourth International Cancer Congress, 1947, and the Second International Gerontological Congress, 1951.

For each of the two international scientific congresses that he presided over in St. Louis, (see also Series 10 and Series 39) EVC saved news clipping containing press coverage in scrapbooks. But not all the clippings saved for the cancer meeting were fully mounted in the appropriate book. In both instances there was substantial duplication in the coverage of events. A half century later, when the Cowdry papers were prepared for microfilming (2001-2002), it had furthermore become apparent that the physical condition of both books and their contents were badly deteriorated. The pages were then removed from the bindings and photocopied before being microfilmed. Reel 148 (on which, due to an error in the filming process, frames containing material in this series follow descriptions of Series 67 through 74 that were not microfilmed).

Correspondence log, 1960-1974.

During the last decade of his life EVC kept a medium-sized loose-leaf notebook by which he kept tract of persons with whom he corresponded or sent publications. His secretary may have compiled this log for EVC to keep with him at all times, apparently annotating it in pencil when he visited his office at the School

Activity and address book, 1947-1957.

When EVC moved his cancer research laboratory activity to the Washington University medical campus he began keeping track of his professional contacts by writing their names in a medium-sized loose-leaf book. At some point now unknown the cover of this book was lost, leaving the pages intact in the three-ring spine and back cover. To facilitate the microfilm edition (2001-2002) this remnant of the binding was discarded and the pages placed in folders

Correspondence concerning a dinner honoring Cowdry, Detroit, 1954.

In 1954 two former trainees and junior colleagues of EVC who had taken positions in Detroit organized a dinner in their city honoring his achievements in medical sciences. The chief organizer of the event was Gordon H. Scott, who was then dean of Wayne University College of Medicine. He was assisted by William L. Simpson, scientific director of the Detroit Institute of Cancer Research, the institutional sponsor of the event, which took place on October 26. The series does not document who actually attended the dinner but rather is composed of communications from the many invited from St. Louis and elsewhere who wrote instead to indicate that they could not be there. Several writers included significant reminiscences and tributes to EVC. All items are dated 1954. From the early Cowdry accessions, 1967-1990.

General correspondence, 1943-1950.

This is a fragment of a larger alphabetically-arranged series from the "crawl space" discovery of 1990 (91-007). Most of the files ahead of the letter R were destroyed or so badly deteriorated that they could not be added to the collection

Recommendation letters, 1938-1950.

Over the years, and particularly during the time when he served as head of the Anatomy Department, EVC wrote dozens of letters of recommendation for former students, colleagues, and support staff members. Among the recipients and subjects of the letters may be recognized names of significant figures in American medical sciences

Correspondence concerning Human biology and racial welfare, 1926-1931.

EVC's contacts with Paul B. Hoeber, who published the anthology Special Cytology (1928, see Series 2), led to his being named editor of a collection intended for a lay audience, which after some deliberation was given the title Human biology and racial welfare. Including EVC, 28 authors contributed essays. The basic scope of the book concerns the whole of the human species. Hoeber published it in 1930. The series also contains correspondence concerning Special cytology.

Cytology Department files, 1932-1933.

This series amounts to a varied collection of documentary "snapshots" of academic life in the depth of the Great Depression. Domestic alcohol prohibition was still the law of the land (hence the reports); trained scientists clamored for jobs and project funds; budgets overall were lean. As the Trachoma Committee indicates, EVC was looked to for his experience in winning foundation support for research as much as for his scientific expertise.

Course files, 1931-1944, 1956.

The files in this series relate to the courses that EVC taught in the 1930s and early 1940s in histology and neurology (later designated neuroanatomy). They contain notices, schedules, outlines, class rosters, examination questions, etc. Indications of performance by particular students are confidential and may not be cited or photocopied.

General correspondence, 1938-1940.

This is the last of the one or two-year general correspondence file series from the 1920s and 1930s that were relegated to the "crawl space." Why EVC separated these documents from the materials in Series 4 remains a mystery

Results 1 to 20 of 74