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This portion of the Erlanger papers consists of files of correspondence, lecture notes, and other material, 1910-circa 1940, received by the Medical Library on June 7, 1963. They are contained in boxes 1 through 13, with folders consecutively numbered 1 through 154. Although identified by the library staff as one series, it appears in retrospect to contain several imperfectly ordered series or subseries. For example, the files in Box 1, Folder 1 through Box 4, Folder 56, with contents concerning a variety of issues, have an alphabetical arrangement. They are followed by another group with varied contents, Box 4, Folder 57 through Box 7, Folder 101. Here too the arrangement is basically alphabetical. Files in Box 8, Folder 103 through Box 8, Folder 110 pertain mainly to lectures which JE gave at out-of-town venues. Files on professional and scientific societies and research with which JE was concerned follow in Box 9, Folder 111 through Box 10, Folder 133. There is no discernable arrangement system. The series concludes with files of mainly personal correspondence, again with no discernable arrangement system in Box 13, Folder 134 through Box 13, Folder 154. The exact significance of the cryptic notations A1, B2, C3, etc. is not known. The series has been microfilmed, 35 mm reels 1-10.

Accessions received between June 7, 1963 and September 3, 1964 were grouped together by the library staff for reasons that are presently (2001) unknown. There seems to be no unifying characteristic about this particular mass of material other than it all was received from JE during a particular period of time. Included are three short series possibly arranged by JE himself: lectures 1-13 (ca. 1905-1946, Box 14, folders 155-164), manuscripts 1-8 (1905-09, 1929, 1964, Box 14, folders 165-172), WUSM Physiology Journal Club reports (1927-1941, Box 15, Folders 173-189), and various private correspondence and notes (1882-1964, Box 15, Folders 190-198). It should be noted that all the 19th century documents in the JE papers are concentrated in one file, “Erlanger family correspondence,” 1882-1938. The file in Box 15, Folder 23 seems very likely to have been created by the library staff, possibly at the time of the official presentation of the Erlanger papers in 1963. Series 2 has been microfilmed on 16mm reels 11-12. Boxes 14-15.

Most of the files in this series were compiled from materials supplied by the Department of Physiology, JE’s daughter Margaret Erlanger, or the Medical Library. As a group they testify to the high regard that JE was held at the end of his life and immediately thereafter, but they do not appear to be in a file order of his choosing. Included are documents from JE’s career that may have been gathered for his autobiography or perhaps for an exhibit honoring him as well as posthumously created items. It is difficult to date some of this material, but most of it falls within the period 1936-1966. Series 3 has been microfilmed on 16mm reels 13-14. Boxes 16-17.

This series includes two items brought together because of what is only roughly similar format. More obvious is their very dissimilar inception and content. They were microfilmed on 16mm reel 15 in the order that follows. Box 18-19.

JE engaged in the common scholarly practice of noting citations to publications and other information important to his work on file cards or on sheets and slips of paper. Some items contain lengthy abstracts or commentary on the works cited and these at least in part served as materials for his lectures and talks. Most of the information is hand-written and the series includes many items with drawings and diagrams. These materials were probably compiled in large part between 1900 and 1950. When first processed for the Library, these files were designated to be "Series 5” and divided into subseries determined in part by the size of the card stock or paper size. The box numbers then were different from what they presently read. Samples of documents from two boxes were microfilmed on 16mm reel 16. Note that the box numbers in the series are not entirely consecutive: the box presently identified as Box 25 contains materials from Series 6 and thus those contents are described later in this finding aid. Boxes 20-24, 26-29.

Between 1943 and 1951 JE engaged in a complicated series of experiments using a cathode ray oscillograph. He and co-author Gordon M. Schoepfle reported their findings in a series of articles published in the 1940s and early 1950s. The last of these was Observations on the local response in single medullated nerve fibers (1951; a copy is in Series 7). The experiments involved various series of readings of electronic potentials and responses that measured and compared different stimulus strengths, durations, and patterns in the responses (described in terms such as hump heights, hump latencies, spike heights, spike latencies, etc.). The data are recorded in a series of forty-one 35mm film strips and in a series of files containing paper sketches, graphs, and notes. The series was not microfilmed. Exactly how the data on film and on paper were related when they were in JE’s possession is presently unknown. The film strips are the primary documents in his research process, having been recorded by a camera trained directly on the screen of the oscillograph. The files of paper documents most likely represent subsequent analyses of the film data. Yet only some of the files appear to have had film strips stored with or linked to them. The original folders unfortunately were discarded and with them any labels that JE and his associates may have written to guide in retrieving the data. All the same, it seems appropriate to keep the film and the files together as one series, with the order of the one determined by the order of the other. In approaching this material, one might initially assume that the dates marked on some of the film and paper documents would offer a more useful ordering principle than what follows, but on further analysis this seems not to be the case. The various types of results were evidently more important than dates to JE and his associates, who sometimes would review data recorded at various times over eight years and then would rearrange and re-annotate the findings in graphs (and thus dates entered are not necessarily the dates of the documents. Thus for example we find data from both 1943 and 1950 included in Box 30, Folder 6). Dates are nevertheless listed here as one means of identifying the data. Boxes 25, 30.

This series was compiled in large part from books and reprints acquired directly from JE, but expanded in 2001 to include virtually everything that he published. As noted below, some items were bound into three volumes, presumably at JE’s own request. Others were placed into consecutive file folders. The book Electrical signs of nervous activity, co-authored by H. S. Gasser (1937) was placed in the Monuments of Medicine rare book collection of the Library. The series was not microfilmed. Boxes 31-35.

Most of the publications in JE’s office library by authors other than himself were given to the Library and thereupon cataloged for use in various book collections. Three volumes are retained with his archival papers, although for disparate reasons. No items in this series have been microfilmed. Box 36.