Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1941-1989 (Creation)
Extent
29 boxes (27 feet)
Name of creator
Biographical history
Hans Popper, M.D., Ph.D. (1903-1988) was a distinguished hepatologist and a central figure in the twentieth-century history of The Mount Sinai Medical Center.
He was born in Vienna in 1903, and during the 1920s and 1930s he rose quickly through the medical ranks of his native city, working as a research assistant to the pioneering pathologist Dr. Hans Eppinger. In March 1938, as a consequence of the Nazi annexation of Austria, he was dismissed from his post at the University of Vienna. He accepted a research fellowship in pathology at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, where he quickly distinguished himself. In 1943 he was appointed Director of Pathology at the hospital; later that year he became a United States citizen. He continued an active research program in addition to his administrative duties, helping to establish the Hektoen Institute for Medical Research, and in 1944 he was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois with a dissertation on the use of fluorescence microscopy to study Vitamin A.
During the Second World War he served in the U.S. Army as a surgical pathologist, eventually rising to the rank of Major. In 1950 he helped convene the first conference of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, which he would serve as President in 1962, and in 1958 he became a founder of the International Association for the Study of the Liver, which he served as President the following year. In 1957, he was recruited to succeed Dr. Paul Klemperer as chief pathologist at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He would spend the rest of his career at Mount Sinai and would contribute greatly to the growth and development of the institution.
In 1967 he was elected President of the Medical Board. He was a major proponent of the creation of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, which was chartered in 1963 and admitted its first cohort of students in 1968. In 1965 he was appointed the school's first Dean for Academic Affairs, and in 1968 he was invested as the first Irene Heinz Given and John Laporte Given Chairman and Professor of Pathology. Dr. Popper was intimately involved with all aspects of the School of Medicine, which he saw as a place to advance the teaching of medicine by training students who were simultaneously well-rounded and specialized. During this period he published extensively on his vision of the modern medical curriculum and its implementation at Mount Sinai, including an important article outlining what came to be known as the Mount Sinai Concept of medical education. With the unexpected death of Dr. George James on March 19, 1972, Dr. Popper became interim President of The Mount Sinai Medical Center and Acting Dean of the School of Medicine, serving for a year prior to the recruitment of Dr. Thomas Chalmers as a permanent successor to Dean James.
In 1973 Dr. Popper retired from teaching and administration. He spent that year in Bethesda, Maryland as a Fogarty Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, which gave him an opportunity to reinvigorate his love of research. For the remaining fifteen years of his life he devoted himself to liver research, spending 70-hour weeks in the lab and becoming, in his own words, "a general practitioner of the human liver." During this period he kept up an extensive schedule of travel and correspondence, presenting at nearly every major hepatological conference and corresponding with his colleagues at other institutions, who would often send him slide samples and case reports for his comments. In 1977 he was invested as Mount Sinai's first Gustave Levy Distinguished Service Professor. Over the course of his career, Dr. Popper published over 800 scientific papers and wrote 28 books. He passed away in 1988.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The bulk of the Hans Popper Papers consists of two alphabetically organized subject files (approx. 10 feet each.) The first dates primarily from his tenure as Director of Pathology at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Dean for Academic Affairs at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. It consists primarily of records related to the administration of the Hospital and School of Medicine. The second dates from the years following his retirement in 1973 and consists primarily of research notes and an extensive correspondence file. The third major record series contains 4 linear feet of material relating to Dr. Popper’s attendance at conferences, seminars and other events, mostly but not exclusively post-1973. In addition, the collection includes smaller series containing records from Popper’s tenure at Cook County Hospital, his appointment books and pocket diaries, the records of his service on the Mount Sinai Medical Board, and oversized and audiovisual materials.
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
- German
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
These papers were transferred to the Mount Sinai Archives in 1988-1989 following the death of Dr. Popper. Upon receipt of the collection, approximately 34 inches of material documenting the early history of Mount Sinai School of Medicine was removed to a separate collection containing the early records of the School. The remainder of the collection was processed by Nicholas Webb in 2013-2014.
The bulk of the collection arrived at the Archives in a well-maintained original order that was preserved during processing. Approximately two linear feet of disorderly and miscellaneous material, consisting primarily of undated handwritten notes, has been integrated into the existing order; the uncertain date and origin of these materials are noted in the container list.
As originally received the collection contained approximately one linear foot of material documenting Dr. Popper’s service as a paid consultant in legal cases related to the hepatic side effects of prescription drugs. As these records contained extensive HIPAA-protected content and had little enduring research value, they have been destroyed by shredding.
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
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
OCLC Number
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
Finding aid created by Nicholas Webb in July 2014.
Access points
Subject access points
- Education » Education, Professional » Education, Medical
- Health Occupations » Medicine » Internal Medicine » Gastroenterology
- Organic Chemicals » Hydrocarbons » Hydrocarbons, Halogenated » Halothane
- Digestive System Diseases » Liver Diseases » Hepatitis
- Digestive System » Liver
- Digestive System » Liver » Liver--Pathology
- Health Occupations » Medicine » Pathology
- Education » Schools » Schools, Health Occupations » Schools, Medical
- Organic Chemicals » Hydrocarbons » Terpenes » Diterpenes » Vitamin A
Place access points
Name access points
- American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (Subject)
- Elmhurst Hospital Center (Elmhurst, New York, N.Y.) (Subject)
- Falk, Herbert (Subject)
- Greenpoint Hospital (New York, N.Y.) (Subject)
- International Association for the Study of the Liver (Subject)
- James, George (Subject)
- Mount Sinai Hospital (New York, N.Y.) (Subject)
- Mount Sinai Hospital (New York, N.Y.). Medical Board (Subject)
- Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York (Subject)
- Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Graduate School of Biological Sciences (Subject)
- Schaffner, Fenton, 1920- (Subject)
- Schwartz, Irving L. (Subject)
- Stratton, Henry M. (Subject)