Seymour J. Phillips correspondence on Beth Israel Medical Center

Identity elements

Reference code

US AA038

Name and location of repository

Level of description

Collection

Title

Seymour J. Phillips correspondence on Beth Israel Medical Center

Date(s)

  • 1936-1987 (Creation)

Extent

1 box (2.5 inches)

Name of creator

(1903-1987)

Biographical history

Seymour J. Phillips was a garment industry executive and longtime Trustee of the Beth Israel Medical Center.

He was President of the Phillips-Jones Corporation, a clothing manufacturer best known for Van Heusen brand dress shirts, which had been founded in 1881 by his grandfather Moses Phillips. Moses Phillips had been an early Board President at Beth Israel, and his son Isaac, Seymour’s father, served as Chairman of the Building Committee of the Board of Trustees during the planning of the Dazian Pavilion, for which he laid the cornerstone in 1922.

Seymour Phillips joined the Board of Trustees in 1939 and served until his death in 1987, a period of nearly fifty years that saw a major expansion of Beth Israel’s facilities and services. The Seymour J. Phillips Health Sciences Library was dedicated in his honor in 1980, and in 1984 the Beth Israel School of Nursing was renamed the Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing in honor of his family’s long tradition of service to Beth Israel.

Content and structure elements

Scope and content

This collection consists of correspondence to and from Seymour J. Phillips relating to his service as a member of the Beth Israel Medical Center Board of Trustees. It begins in the late 1930s with correspondence documenting the initial recruitment of Phillips to the Board of Trustees and concludes in 1987 with correspondence between Beth Israel staff and the Phillips family regarding his passing.

While all decades from this time period are represented to some extent, there is a noticeable increase in the volume and frequency of correspondence beginning in the late 1950s, with the bulk of the collection dating from the 1960s. This likely reflects Mr. Phillips’ increased attention to Board activity following his retirement from private business.

The correspondence in this collection deals primarily with Mr. Phillips’ activities as a Trustee and his role in the financing and administration of the Beth Israel Medical Center. Correspondents include fellow Trustees, including Board President Charles H. Silver, and various Beth Israel administrators, notably Cecil Sheps, MD, who served as General Director of the Medical Center from 1965 to 1968. Beginning in 1980, the correspondence also includes regular updates on library activities from the director of Mr. Phillips’ namesake medical library.

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use elements

Conditions governing access

This material is available for use. Contact the Archives (MSArchives@mssm.edu) for access to these materials.

Physical access

Technical access

Conditions governing reproduction

Languages of the material

  • English

Scripts of the material

    Language and script notes

    Finding aids

    Generated finding aid

    Acquisition and appraisal elements

    Custodial history

    This collection of correspondence arrived at the Mount Sinai Archives in April 2015 as part of a large, disorderly shipment of records that had been in storage at the Continuum Health Partners legal department. For a complete discussion of these records’ provenance, please refer to the Beth Israel Medical Center Records finding aid.

    Within this shipment of records, the Seymour J. Phillips Correspondence was a discrete collection. The Mount Sinai Archives has processed and cataloged the collection accordingly. The contents of the collection, however, suggest that it may be an artificial collection formed by assembling items from multiple sources, including the office of Beth Israel General Director Cecil Sheps, MD and the records of the Seymour J. Phillips Health Sciences Library, into a single file. If this is the case, the artificial collection was probably created by a member of the Beth Israel Medical Center library staff during the complex custodial history of the larger record shipment of which it was a part.

    Immediate source of acquisition

    Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information

    Some letters in this collection were typewritten on acidic wood pulp paper and were in poor condition. In these cases, they were photocopied to preservation-quality acid-free paper and the originals were discarded.

    Accruals

    Related materials elements

    Existence and location of originals

    Existence and location of copies

    Related archival materials

    Related descriptions

    Notes element

    Specialized notes

    Alternative identifier(s)

    Legacy ID from CMS

    AA.001113

    OCLC Number

    953194494

    Description control element

    Rules or conventions

    Sources used

    Archivist's note

    Processed by Nicholas Webb in June 2016.

    Access points

    Place access points

    Genre access points

    Accession area