Auchincloss Florence Nightingale Collection
Freud Library Columbia University Medical Center Archives Hyman Collection in the History of Anesthesiology Personal Papers and Manuscripts
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Personal Papers and Manuscripts
SECOND GENERAL HOSPITAL.
Collection, 1942-1952.
.5 cubic feet (2 boxes)
HISTORICAL NOTE :
Second General Hospital was the U.S. Army hospital organized from the medical and nursing personnel of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. After training at Fort Meade, Maryland, the unit sailed to England in July 1942 and was stationed at Churchill Hospital, Headington, Oxford. A detachment was based in Northern Ireland from July to December, 1942.
The hospital arrived in Normandy on July 24, 1944 and was stationed at Lison. It was transferred to Revigny (Nov. – Dec. 1944) and finally Nancy where it was disbanded in August 1945. Admissions from June 1942 through July 1945 totaled 27,350 with 5,280 surgical operations performed.
For additional information consult Albert R. Lamb, The 2nd General Hospital (New York: Columbia University Office of Publications, 1997), available in the Health Sciences Library circulating collection.
SCOPE AND CONTENT :
Reports, diaries, patient registers, questionnaires, photographs, and other material documenting the activities and personnel of the Second General Hospital during World War II. This is an artificial collection of materials gathered by several persons.
The annual reports to the Surgeon-General’s Office give an excellent overview of the unit’s activities; the 1943 report also contains photographs of the hospital while stationed at Oxford. The Second General Hospital diary (Box 1: 4-5) appears to have been a unit responsibility: it is written in many different hands and there is a period of about six months (July-Dec. 1942) when two diaries were kept at the same time. Thomas H. Lanman’s diary covers his time as Commanding Officer of the detachment stationed in Northern Ireland in 1942.
The questionnaires were sent out in 1947 to all members of the unit – both professional and support staff – by Dr. Lawrence Sloan in an attempt to gather information for a history of 2nd General that he was to write. Information includes time with Second General; assignments and activities while with the unit; ranks and decorations; time with other units (if applicable); and present (1947) address. More detailed letters from the respondents are often present.
The photographs, almost all of which are snapshots, were created by many members of the unit. They include scenes of the hospital and its personnel in Oxford, Normandy, and Nancy. The photographs donated by John Scarff include pictures of his time with the 9th Evacuation Hospital which crossed the Rhine into Germany.
ACCESS:
Because the surgical patient register (Box 1:6) includes Protected Health Information (PHI) as defined by the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), access is allowed only under the terms of Archives and Special Collections’ Access Policy to Records Containing Protected Health Information.
PROVENANCE:
Gift of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Office of Public Affairs, 2000 (acc. no. 2000.01.20).
Part of the collection was gathered by Dr. Lawrence Sloan, a member of the unit, in preparation for writing its history. He never accomplished this and his records were given to Presbyterian Hospital in 1972 by his son-in-law, Dr. Malcolm Carpenter, a faculty member of Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. These eventually ended up in the possession of the Hospital’s Office of Public Affairs.
Another, smaller, part of the collection appears to have been donated to Archives & Special Collections at an unspecified time in the 1990s by Dr. Thomas Q. Morris. From internal evidence these appear to have been originally held by Dr. Albert R. Lamb, Jr., who wrote the history of the Second General Hospital (1997).
SUBJECTS:
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.
Presbyterian Hospital (New York, N.Y.)
Medicine, Military – United States.
Military hospitals – United States.
Surgery, Military – United States.
World War, 1939-1945 – Medical care.
Military Medicine – United States.
2nd General Hospital.
Diaries.
Medical records.
Photographs.
Collection processed and finding aid written by Stephen E. Novak, 2007.
Box Folder Contents
1 1 Annual reports to Surgeon-General’s Office, 1942-1944
2 Interim report to Surgeon-General’s Office, 1 Jan. 1945-30 June,
1945
3 Monthly surgical reports, Jan. 1944-July 1945
4 Second General Hospital diary, Feb. 15, 1942-Dec. 14, 1942
5 Second General Hospital diary, July 24, 1942-Nov. 29, 1943
6 Surgical patient register, Sept. 1944, Jan.-Aug. 1945; Surgical O.D.
Reports, Aug. 1944-Aug. 1945 RESTRICTED
7 Lanman, Thomas H.: Diary, June 13-Dec. 17, 1942 while with the
detachment in Northern Ireland
8 Questionnaires, A-K, 1947
9 Questionnaires, L-W, 1947
10 Program: Presbyterian Hospital dinner for staff returning from armed
services, March 21, 1946
11 Sloan, Lawrence: US Army discharge questionnaire, 1945;
miscellaneous notes, n.d.
Photographs
12 Appendix E from 1943 annual report to Surgeon-General’s Office:
photos of Second General Hospital, at Churchill Hospital,
Headington, Oxford, Oxfordshire
13 Fort Meade, MD, 1942
14 Fort Meade, MD: mostly snapshots of hike, June 5, 1942
15 Honor Roll, Presbyterian Hospital: unveiling (?) of plaque: Allen O.
Whipple, professor of surgery, present
Box Folder Contents
2 1 Churchill Hospital, Oxford, 1942-1944
2 Scenes in Britain (not Oxford), c.1942-1944
3 Scenes in France, 1944-1945
4 Duchess of Bedford: ship that transported Second General
to Britain in 1942
5 Rousselot, Peter, with Lawrence Sloan, 1945
6 Sheldon, Paul: portrait in uniform, undated
7 Taylor, Ardra (nurse): portrait in uniform, undated
8 Transport ship (unidentified) general scenes: not clear if this
is 1942 or 1945
9 Photos from Wilma Grace Bivens: in uniform; returning on Queen
Elizabeth, 1945
10 Photos from Constance Gough Bloom: Churchill Hospital, Oxford;
Normandy; war destruction in France
11 Photos from Jack R. Jarvis: Churchill Hospital, Oxford; Normandy?
12 Photos from John Scarff: “Litchfield; first days at Oxford”
13 Photos from John Scarff: “Oxford, ’44, Officers’ Club, 2d G.H.”
14 Photos from John Scarff: “Oxford”
15 Photos from John Scarff: “Oxford, ’44, Last days of 2d GH, 1st days of
91st GH”
16 Photos from John Scarff: “9th Evac., 1st crossing of Rhine”
17 Photos from John Scarff: “9th Evac. – Last camp”
18 Photos from Ruth Willey: Bob Hope at Churchill Hospital; embarking
on the General Meigs, 1945
Loose in box:
Photo of Second General Hospital, Officers Alumni Association, Tenth
Reunion, Waldorf-Astoria, April 4, 1952 (rolled)
Box of family photos of John Scarff, late 1940s?
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