Please review the notes under the individual series below. For additional information on that series, go to https://libguides.mssm.edu/catalog and enter the OCLC # provided to read the catalog record for that series.

The records of St. Luke’s Hospital Center (1857-1979) includes the records of the earlier years of St. Luke’s Hospital (1857-1952), prior to merging with Woman’s Hospital (1953); the addition of the word “Center” to the name in 1965 is to indicate the multiple institutions involved. The collection is stronger in the administrative records; the clinical records contain within are sparse and incomplete. Some of what is here are restricted under HIPPA laws because they contain personal information on patients.

The materials include meeting minutes and reports of the Board of Managers and Medical Board and their executive committees as well as some alumni groups; correspondence; committee, death logs; patient casebooks; photographs; videos; legal briefs, opinions, real estate documents and patents; by-laws, acts, and constitution of the hospitals; dietary and formulary lists; superintendent’s statistics logs; pastor’s records; some departmental records; patient and medical library records; event programs; house staff skit scripts; St. Johnland documents; medical and surgical reports; military records; various publications, both historical and commercial; newsletters; reprints of doctors’ articles; artifacts, both medical, military, and historical and ephemera.

This small collection has five series: School of Nursing records, the Alumnae Association records, Alumnae Papers, Artifacts and Photographs. The School of Nursing series is 14 folders of basic information about the School, the highlights of which are the annual announcements catalogs (folders 2-5) outlining the entrance requirements and the curriculum, and the Triennium, the class yearbooks for 1951, 1952, 1955, 1957, 1968, 1973, and 1974. The proposal by the New York Infant Asylum to provide obstetric training is also of note as it provides a detailed list of areas of instruction for 1895 (folder 9). Student transcripts from 1941-1974 are also included in this collection; please see note under that series for details.

Significant records in The Alumnae Association series are the annual reports for the Association and a nearly complete run of the Association’s Bulletin, providing news of its members and of the Hospital. (Note that a number of annual reports are published in particular Bulletin issues, which are clearly noted in the container list. Also note that an appendix listing all of the Bulletins in the collection, along with a list of all the directresses, can be found at https://archives.mssm.edu/downloads/aa149.pdf) Also of significance are the three volumes of Alumnae Rosters, the first of which contains a short history of the School. These books and the two volumes of the Alumnae Association annual reports are behind all the folders in box 2. Photographs of Alumnae are also included in the collection; however, they are filed in the larger St. Luke’s Hospital series of the Photograph Collection. A scrapbook of snap shots of student nurses around 1953-1955 is also found in the artifacts.

The Alumnae Papers consists of materials donated by the School’s graduates and may include bulletins, pamphlets, yearbooks, artifacts such as uniforms or graduate pins, invitations and other materials. This series is arranged by donation date.

Artifacts include a complete student nurse’s uniform, with its distinctive wool cape and the School's graduate pin.

The documents comprising the records of the Woman’s Hospital in the State of New York include annual reports, committee reports, meeting minutes, correspondence, photographs, reprints and written works prepared by the medical staff, 19th century patient casebooks, the manuscript of the first gynecological text book in the U.S., notebooks recording expectant fathers’ thoughts, original gynecological illustrations for text books, and medical instruments. Although most of the material deals with the administrative aspects of the hospital, documentation of the medical staffs’ accomplishments is also provided.

Bound volumes of annual reports, which include reports from the Woman’s Hospital Association, Board of Governors, Board of Supervisors and the Medical Department, form the most complete series among these records, though the collection lacks the first 22 volumes of reports, and only starts at Volume 23, 1877-1878. The reports provide a description of the hospital’s organizational structure and its constitution and by-laws. Additionally, each offers an overview of the major events and accomplishments for that year: statistical data, such as the number of patients admitted and treated, financial information concerning the budget, and donations and their donors. Several of the reports include the text of speeches given at the annual combined meetings of the Boards and biographical sketches of hospital physicians. (Note: Earlier copies of Woman’s Hospital annual reports are found at the New York Historical Society.)

Also included in the annual reports are monthly and quarterly reports submitted to the Board of Governors by the Boards and their committees. Their dates and numbers imply that several are missing. These reports include statistical information, e.g., number of patients being treated, financial data, and descriptions of the hospital’s physical condition. Although incomplete, the medical reports provide statistical and narrative reports of the pathologist and other physicians.

Minutes of meetings constitute a significant portion of this collection. They record the proceedings of the various Boards and their respective committees. The discussions reveal the hierarchy in the Woman’s Hospital organizational structure. There are gaps in the reports, however.

Some correspondence addressed to the Board of Governors has been filed with the Board’s records. Several of the letters refer to appointments of physicians and other personnel, while the remainder are general in nature.

The casebooks span dates between 1855 and 1871 and include patient information from J. Marion Sims, MD and Thomas Addis Emmet, MD. The text includes original, hand drawn pencil sketches of some of the cases, sometimes in color. The original casebooks are fragile and have been digitally scanned for researcher use.

The records of the Woman’s Hospital in the State of New York shed light on the history of the Hospital from an organizational and medical perspective. The evolution of the hospital is highlighted by the wide time span covered by the materials. References to other hospitals and certain epidemics supply information about general health conditions in New York City during this time period.