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This collection contains the private practice records of Dr. Arpad G. C. Gerster. They span almost his entire career as a surgeon in New York City, from 1881-1923. These records are contained in three bound volumes and five boxes. The patient cards were received in three wooden boxes.
The volumes, which were personalized for Dr. Gerster, contain chronological patient records from January 1, 1881 to July 24, 1906. Each patient record has pre-printed slots for the following information: date, age, name and dwelling, business and nativity, diagnosis, treatment, and remarks. Dr. Gerster completed these categories. However, he often had little or nothing to say under 'remarks' and sometimes did not include 'age.' 'Business' was included less often in later years. Presumably, comments under 'treatment' were not completed when not necessary.
The first volume is entirely in German (except for Latin diagnoses). Some of the early entries in the second volume are in English, and by 1892 they are primarily in English. In the front of each volume is an alphabetical index to patients' case records. The last entry in the third volume is on July 24, 1906.
There is a three year gap between the bound volumes of patient records and the first case in the file boxes, which commences on July 26, 1909. Here, cases numbered from 1 - 442 were recorded on pre-printed cards. Some additional questions are included on these cards. These include: civil state, family history, personal history, previous diseases, date of operation, operator, assistant, anesthetist, anaesthetic, amount and examination of urine (chart to be filled in). On the reverse side are pre-printed anatomical drawings for further notations. These forms were clearly meant for use with patients expecting a surgical procedure. However, these cards were often not completed as many patients did not require surgery. Beginning with case number 444 (January 1911) Dr. Gerster ran out of the pre-printed forms and used plain paper to record his patient information. These records reflect the same information as that on the preprinted cards, however they are more difficult to read.
The patient records reflect a private practice of the time. Although Dr. Gerster functioned as a general physician, his practice revealed a bias towards surgically treatable patients. At this time, it would have been difficult to have an exclusively surgical practice because there would not have been enough business to support it. However, because of Dr. Gerster's abilities and prominence, he came as close as possible to having such a practice. Over the span of the records, the types of cases did not show any significant shift in character. The cases have a great deal of variety. Included among the many diagnoses were rheumatoid arthritis, alcoholic hepatitis, acute nephritis, chronic gastritis, double cleft palate, eczema, inguinal hernia, syphilis, vulva cutis, pulmonary tuberculosis, arteriosclerosis, uterine hemorrhage, and many others.
There are a variety of inserts and attachments found throughout the patient records. These include sketches by Dr. Gerster illustrating ailments and abnormalities of patients; correspondence from physicians introducing patients (a number of these are from out of state and many are not in English); pathology lab reports from both the German Hospital and Mount Sinai regarding excised tissue; correspondence from patients; and two radiographic images. (These images are located in: Case Book Number 3, April 17, 1901, and Card File Box 1, in front of Case 104.)
Private patient records such as these are probably uncommon in hospital archives since they do not directly relate to hospital practice. These records are especially interesting because they occur during a period when surgery became safer and more common and when the rise and dominance of surgery as a method of treatment was seen. Additionally, they are of interest because they are the records of Dr. Gerster, an influential and prominent surgeon during his time.
Dr. Gerster's notes end with case number 3670 on February 23, 1923. The patient records continue to October 27, 1923. An unidentified physician apparently took over Gerster's practice shortly before his (Gerster's) death on March 11, 1923.

These papers represent a small portion of the work Dr. Ludwig was involved in during his career, focusing primarily on research he undertook in the 1950s. There is nothing here about his private practice. The files include grant applications and reports of research on connective tissue, which was under the direction of Paul Klemperer, MD, Director of Mount Sinai's Department of Pathology. There is also a folder of material that includes a letter from Norman Boas, MD about a research project they had begun that seems not to have been published. Of note are two slim notebooks where Dr. Ludwig recorded research data, as well as reviews of articles he had read on the topic. He inserted hand drawn charts and tables. They are an interesting example of how a clinician did research at this time.
Six photographs are included in this collection. The originals were scanned to create digital copies and were returned to Mrs. Ludwig. The photographs include four in a series from 1966 that show Dr. Ludwig meeting with house staff in the Department of Medicine, and then going on rounds in the Klingenstein Clinical Center. There are also shots of the First Medical Service staff in 1947 and the Second Medical Service house staff in 1943. Printouts of the scans are also filed in the Photograph Collection.

This small collection includes a letter, a hymn, and several books written by William A. Muhlenberg, a few inscribed to particular people. Several books written about him are included, the most significant by Dr. Robert Abbe, which describes Muhlenberg's childhood, and bears Abbe’s autograph, and Muhlenberg’s personal Bible. The finding aid container list also includes other books about the family and its history that are held in the archives library.

This collection was assembled by the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr., MD Archives to capture the web presence of the Mount Sinai Health System. Started in 2015, additional sites are added as they are created or discovered by the Archives.

While this collection aims to capture information as broadly as possible, there are a few notable groupings of subject areas. Perhaps most significantly are the websites related to the Mount Sinai Health System's response to the COVID-19 pandemic -- with much of MSHS's communications going online in March 2020, websites related to this effort are crucial for understanding pandemic response. Additionally, there are also a significant number of websites related to student life at the Icahn School of Medicine, with many of the sites created by the students themselves. Finally, there are a number of blogs and social media websites, including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, which documents day-to-day outreach by MSHS.

The files in this collection primarily cover The Mount Sinai Hospital's doctors and nurses stationed at the 3rd General Hospital. Details about Mount Sinai clinicians and staff in active duty stationed at other locations during World War II are found in the publication Grand Rounds: Memos from Mount Sinai Men to their Fellows in the Services. The records cover the time period from 1942 through 1945.

A prominent item in this collection is Ralph Moloshok's unpublished historical account. The manuscript provides a detailed chronicle of Dr. Moloshok's experiences in basic training at Camp Rucker, and his active duty at the 3rd General Hospital in North Africa. The document is approximately 400 pages long. The first 118 pages are written as a journal, with entries appearing almost daily. These entries provide in-depth descriptions of the weeks spent in basic training at Camp Rucker. The second portion of the manuscript details the move to Casablanca, and finally the order to begin duty at the 3rd General Hospital in Tunisia.

The value of this manuscript is not just in its detailed descriptions of people, living conditions and medical military life, it also includes affixed original documents outlining the officers' schedules and basic training routines, anecdotes, illustrations (with no identifiable artist attribution), and photographs from Camp Rucker, Casablanca, Italy and France.

With so much of Mount Sinai's attention and resources turned toward the war effort, the Hospital moved to address the growing interest in information about the men and women in service at the 3rd General Hospital, as well as those assigned to other units in the war. Two members of Mount Sinai's administration, Sol Weiner Ginsburg, MD and Bella Trachtenberg responded by collecting, printing, binding and distributing the letters written by doctors in the war. These quarterly editions, called Grand Rounds: Memos from Mount Sinai Men to their Fellows in the Services, became wildly popular at home and among the soldiers serving abroad and within the United States. The compilation contains World War II letters and letter excerpts from September 1943 through October 1945.

Other important items in this collection are two scrapbooks on the nursing staff's military service during World War II. One was created by the Department of Nursing, the other by the Alumnae Association of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. The scrapbooks include official military and hospital correspondence to and from the nursing staff in the form of letters and memoranda that range from 1942 through 1945. An interesting part of the Dept. of Nursing's scrapbook is the more casual correspondence such as greeting cards, personal notes, marriage and birth announcements, and Victory Mail (V-Mail). The greeting cards are addressed to the unit as well as to individuals. Some of the cards are hand painted. Samples of unused V-mail, intended to send holiday greetings (Mother's Day, Easter, and Christmas), are also included. Other loose items in the scrapbook include programs from amateur performances by the nurses and medical officers, concerts and religious services. The religious programs represent both Christian and Jewish faith observances at the 3rd General Hospital.

Other noteworthy scrapbook items include an original April 13, 1945 issue of Stars and Stripes announcing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's death. There are also various newsletters produced by and for the officers. These include issues of BBC News, Stethoscope 3rd General, and The Trooper. Several issues in this sampling are incomplete.

The bound pages of the scrapbook from the Alumnae Association of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing contains numerous keepsake items, mementos from various events, and personal and official correspondence to 1st Lt. Ruth Chamberlin, who served as Chief Nurse at the 3rd General Hospital.

In addition to this print material, the collection also includes an audio recording (VM_012) and printed transcript of The Story of Two Hospitals, as recorded by Robert St. John, an NBC war correspondent, in November 1943. There is also film footage related to the 3rd General Hospital that was taken by Dr. Henry Horn, a Mount Sinai staff member who was in the Unit. This includes footage from the Unit starting in North Africa and continuing through France, including a trip to Paris and the Follies Bergère. His wife later gave the film to the Hospital. All six reels of the film were digitized in 2005.

This is a collection of documents and photographs donated by Dr. Gallozzi. They include letters from colleagues and patients (which are restricted to preserve patient privacy), notes from friends, certificates and diplomas, invitations to alumni events and dedications, and photographs of himself with colleagues, and lists of staff.

This collection consists primarily of correspondence, documents, photographs and memorabilia dating from Esther Winkler Shapiro’s service as a U.S. Army nurse on the Pacific front during the Second World War, with a smaller assortment of material dating from her time as a nursing student at The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. Memorabilia include a World War II Army Nurse Corps uniform and cap, a Japanese flag, and Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing caps. The collection include a shipboard newsletter from the U.S.S. Repose and a hospital newspaper from Thomas M. England General Hospital, locations where Shapiro served.

This small collection spans the career of Dr. Garlock: from medical school material, to ambulance duty logs from his internship at New York Hospital, photographs and some case reports on plastic surgery patients, private practice patient records, Operative Clinic presentations he made as Chief of Surgical Service at Mount Sinai, to the book on surgery of the alimentary tract that was published after his death.
While the range is wide, the records still only provide a surface picture of the man. The detailed notes and sometimes colorful drawings that Dr. Garlock created in medical school speak to his attention to detail. The early volumes are labeled "John Harry Garlock." He also noted a change of address on the notebooks from 346 W. 56th Street to 180 Claremont Avenue. This move happened during his medical school years.
His surgical acumen and style are brought out in the patient files and transcripts of the surgical clinics. The latter also give a glimpse into early plastic surgery at New York Hospital and The Mount Sinai Hospital. It was Dr. Garlock who helped establish plastic surgery as a surgical specialty here. The clinics were ended in January of 1943 for the duration of the War because there was a problem obtaining a sufficient number of orderlies.
Also instructive for insights into Dr. Garlock are the correspondence files, one with colleagues (Box 1, f.6) and the other with patients (Box 2, f.6). The ambulance log books in Box 1 show Dr. Garlock's keen eye for his surroundings and provide wonderful details on the people he treated and the treatments of the day.
Of note, too, is a series of letters Dr. William Hitzig wrote on behalf of Dr. Garlock when the latter was planning a trip to India. Dr. Hitzig had many connections there and wrote letters of introduction for the Garlocks. There is also a series of letters regarding a controversy between Drs. Sigmund Mage and Richard Lewisohn. (Box 1, f.9)
The patient records found here are only a portion of the files maintained by Dr. Garlock at his office. At his death, the records were divided among Dr. Garlock's junior colleagues. Many of those included here are the records of ileostomy and colostomy patients that were taken by Dr. Albert S. Lyons.
This collection contains some photographs, many of which are large and mounted. Thirteen posed publicity photos of unknown musicians and dancers were removed and sent to the Lincoln Center Archives for inclusion in their collections.

Emails and photographs from the Mount Sinai volunteer team that went to Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010-01-12 earthquake. The emails are in .txt format and are from Marianne Coughlin to the families of the Mount Sinai employees on the volunteer team. The photographs are largely of patients in surgery, but also include photographs of the volunteer team and the tent hospital.

This small collection, (inclusive dates: 1888-1928), is comprised primarily of eight folders of reprints of Abbe's published articles on a variety of medical case studies, and a number of reprint articles about Abbe by others (1 folder). The remaining twelve folders include: an address by Abbe to soldiers leaving for World War I from Maine; a 70th birthday dinner menu, and a bound volume of transcriptions of congratulatory letters on the same occasion; out-going letters to nephew Hubert Howson and niece Helen Louise Howson, Robert Abbe MacKenzie, a distant relative and namesake, and Carrie Bath, the St. Luke's Director of Nursing, recommending two Bar Harbor, Maine women for the program; an article on his donation of artifacts of prominent medical figures to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; several small drawings and doggerel ("comic verse composed in irregular rhythm") by Abbe; recollections of him by Robert Abbe MacKenzie; a memorial book of quotes from Abbe's writings; and a few photographs including formal portraits of Abbe, and prints of images he made of his family in Maine, taken from Lumiere autochrome plates, as well as the original autochrome plates. Note that the photographs have been removed from the collection and added to the Mount Sinai Archives Photograph Collection, and need to be requested separately for viewing.

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 documents comprising the Roosevelt Hospital School of Nursing Records Collection reflect the school’s inception, growth, and affairs for much of its 78 year existence (1896-1974). The collection is particularly rich in photographs, which include directors and other principals of the school as well as graduating classes.

The Alumnae Association Bulletin, subsequently the Roosevelt Review, remains a primary and exceptionally rich source of information, not only for the school’s affairs, but also for much of Roosevelt Hospital’s history and activities during that period.

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.

This is a small collection. Of particular significance are the two patient registers, or casebooks, of the Infirmary which report on the condition of the patients cared for there by the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion. The last page of the second volume refers to the transition to the new St. Luke’s Hospital in 1858. The collection also includes several historical sketches of the church, a program from the 90th anniversary service, a short biography of Anne Ayres, the first Sister, is included as well as a portrait of her, and pictures of the church building. (Note that these have been moved to the Archives Photograph Collection.) A Founders’ Day sermon from 1927 and a charming Christmas card from a Miss Roberts and Sister Anne are also found in the collection.

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.