M. Ralph Kaufman investiture as Klingenstein Professor of Psychiatry

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This is a recording of the investiture ceremony that inaugurated Dr. M. Ralph Kaufman as the first Esther and Joseph Klingenstein Professor of Psychiatry on April 22, 1968, five months before the Mount Sinai Medical School opened in September 1968. Mr. Klingenstein, delivering a speech on behalf of himself and Mrs. Klingenstein, recalled interviewing Dr. Kaufman for his first position at Mount Sinai Hospital and praised his work advocating for a separate psychiatric facility, the Klingenstein Clinical Center.

Dr. Lawrence Kolb, Professor of Psychiatry and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, delivered an address charting the history of psychiatry. Additional speakers during the ceremony included: George James, Dean of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Mr. Gustave L. Levy, the President of The Mount Sinai Hospital Board of Trustees and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Medical School; Mr. Alfred Stern, a member of both the Hospital and Medical School Board of Trustees; Dr. Martin Steinberg, Director of Mount Sinai Hospital (1948-1969); President Steinbach, and Dr. Kaufman. The speakers largely highlighted aspects of Dr. Kaufman’s career, particularly the creation of a separate psychiatric facility, the Klingenstein Clinical Center.

This material has been digitized. Transcript is available.

Aufses, Arthur H., Jr., and Niss, Barbara. This House of Noble Deeds : The Mount Sinai Hospital, 1852-2002. New York: New York University Press, 2002.

Description created by Lily Stowe-Alekman in Summer 2020.