Call Number:

CPP 10/009-01

Repository:

Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Extent:

.2 linear feet (1 half document box)

Language:

English

Date:

1874-1890 (inclusive)

Creator:

College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Committee of Publications

Form:

Correspondence, Financial records, Minutes, and Reports

Abstract:

The Committee of Publication of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia was first appointed on 2 November 1841, following a resolution of the College to publish a quarterly summary of its transactions, An earlier "Printing Committee" had existed to produce the first volume of College transactions in 1793. The Committee of Publication was charged with reporting all College transactions, communications, and discussions and preparing this material for publication. Various methods of publication were attempted before the College, following a controversy in 1874, determined to publish its own annual periodical, Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, as it had done in 1793.

By 1925, the committee was known as the "Committee on Publication"; it was empowered to secure copies of all papers and lectures of the College and its sections and employ a stenographer to report all scientific business and discussion. The 1935 revision of the College by-laws state simply that the committee's responsibility was to edit and publish the College transactions. In 1978, responsibility for editing and producing Transactions~ studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia had devolved upon the Francis C. Wood Institute for the History of Medicine, and, by 1984, the Committee on Publications, as it was then known, worked as a consultant body. Its responsibilities were assumed by the Committee on Program in 1990.

This collection of records of the Committee of Publication of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia contains reports, financial reports, minutes, and correspondence, 1874-1890, concerning publication of the College transactions, There is considerable documentation of the 1874 controversy with Isaac Hays which resulted in the College's resolution to publish its own medical journal; letters of John Ashhurst and Edward Hartshorne are included. There are also annual reports of the Committee of Publication, 1881-1889, which discuss the cost and content of each issue of the Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and minutes, 1889-1890, of the Committee on the Scientific Business of the College, a subcommittee of the Committee of Publication, responsible for the coordination and scheduling of papers and discussions at College meetings.