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Harry Gideon Wells papers

 Collection
Call Number: Ms Coll 23

Scope and Contents

The collection includes materials written by Wells, including his typewritten autobiography with his pencil annotations, two student notebooks on physiological chemistry from the Sheffield Scientific School, 1894-1895, a pathology notebook of research conducted under Dr. Emil Abderhalden at the University of Berlin in 1905, and two notebooks containing drafts of papers from the 1930s. The autobiography includes chapters on his boyhood in New Haven, Hillhouse High School, Sheffield Scientific School, medical school, and his later research career as well as his hobby, fishing. Published materials include four volumes of reprints of his articles, three scrapbooks of his editorials and short pieces clipped from the Journal of the American Medical Association, two reunion volumes from the Sheffield Scientific School, and a folder of biographical material including a typewritten obituary by Ludwig Hektoen.

Dates

  • 1894 - 1943

Creator

Language of Materials

The materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of this collection are in the public domain. There are no restrictions on use. Copyright status for other collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from Sheila Amdur, 2007.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in three series: I. Manuscripts, 1894-1930; II. Published papers, 1897-1935; and III. Biographical materials, 1927-1943.

Extent

2.5 Linear Feet (2 boxes and 6 volumes)

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/med.ms.0023

Abstract

Harry Gideon Wells, pathologist and immunologist, was born July 21, 1875 in New Haven, Connecticut and attended Hillhouse High School. He graduated from Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, in 1895. He was an authority on the chemical aspects of pathology and immunology.

Collection materials include his autobiography, student notebooks, drafts and published writings, reunion books, and obituaries.

Biographical / Historical

Harry Gideon Wells, pathologist and immunologist, was born July 21, 1875 in New Haven, Connecticut and attended Hillhouse High School. The failure of his father's wholesale drug business led his family to move to Chicago in 1893, where his father opened a drugstore. Wells graduated from Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, in 1895, where he studied physiological chemistry with Professors Russell Chittenden and Lafayette B. Mendel. He graduated from Rush Medical College in 1898 and received a PhD in Pathology at University of Chicago in 1903. He took a postgraduate year abroad in 1905. From 1901 to 1940, he was a member of the medical faculty of the University of Chicago and served as longtime chair of the department of pathology. He was an authority on the chemical aspects of pathology and immunology. His text, Chemical Pathology, went through several editions beginning in 1907. He also published books on the chemistry of tuberculosis and on the chemical aspects of immunology. He died in Chicago on April 26, 1943.

Title
Guide to the Harry Gideon Wells Papers
Status
Completed
Author
created by Todd Lane and Toby A. Appel; revised (2019) by Michelle Peralta
Date
October 2019
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Medical Historical Library, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library Repository

Contact:
Yale University
333 Cedar St.
New Haven CT 06520-8014 US
203-737-1192
203-785-5636 (Fax)

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