Edward Clark Streeter collection

Collection

Call Number: Ms Coll 25

Scope and Contents

The collection includes correspondence of Edward C. Streeter with Harvey Cushing, John F. Fulton, and Madeline Stanton, and correspondence of Streeter’s widow, Alice Chase Streeter, with Stanton and Fulton. There is also material on Streeter’s biography of Giovanni Battista Canano written for a reprint edition by Streeter and Cushing in 1925; Streeter’s role as donor and Yale curator of the Streeter Collection of Weights & Measures and his pharmacy collection; plans for Streeter’s seventieth birthday party arranged by Fulton; and John Fulton’s obituary of Streeter, originally published in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine in 1947 and then revised and published by the Historical Library in conjunction of the 50th reunion of Streeter’s Yale College class of 1898. A folder contains biographical information on Streeter gathered partly through correspondence by Stanton and Elizabeth H. Thomson for Fulton’s use.

Dates

1921-1948

Creator

Streeter, Edward Clark, -1947

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Yale owns copyright to letters by Cushing, Fulton, and Stanton, but may not own copyright to other materials.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was originally gathered by Madeline Stanton, Historical Librarian at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library in 1947 and 1948 after Streeter's death and left in a box in the Historical Library.

Arrangement

One series, roughly chronological.

Extent

0.5 Linear Feet (1 box)

Language of Materials

English

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.0025

Additional Description

Overview

Edward Clark Streeter, 1874-1947, was a graduate of Yale College in 1898 who practiced medicine in Chicago in the early part of his career. After his move to Boston in 1907, he became a book collector, a historian of medicine, and a friend and collaborator of Harvey Cushing on historical projects. When he moved to Stonington, Connecticut in 1928, he was appointed from 1939 to 1933 visiting professor of history of medicine at Yale. In 1941, he donated his collection of weights and measures and pharmaceutical objects to the Historical Library part of the new Yale Medical Library. He served as curator of these collections until his death in 1947. The Edward Clark Streeter collection contains correspondence with Harvey Cushing from Cushing's Boston period, and with John F. Fulton and Madeline Stanton representing the Historical Library, as well as biographical material collected by Stanton and Elizabeth Thomson for John Fulton after Streeter's death.

Biographical / Historical

Edward Clark Streeter was born in Chicago, Illinois, on November 10, 1874. He received degrees from Yale College (A.B., 1898) and Northwestern University (M.D., 1901). Streeter practiced medicine in Chicago at the homeopathic Streeter Hospital founded by his father John Williams Streeter. After his father's death in 1905, he moved to Boston where he undertook postdoctoral work and published several articles on bacteriology, and also became increasingly active as a book collector and historian of medicine. His special historical interest was Renaissance anatomists and art. He married Alice Chase of Connecticut in 1906. During World War I, he served in France as part of the Yale Mobile Hospital 39. He wrote several historical articles and edited with Harvey Cushing a reprint edition of Giovanni Baptista Canani's anatomical work on muscles (1541?) in 1925. He served as lecturer in history of medicine at Harvard Medical School (1921-1933). In 1928 Streeter moved from Boston to his summer residence in Stonington, Connecticut. He served as visiting professor of the history of medicine at Yale University (1929-1933). Streeter collected extensively in the fields of medical literature, weights and measures, and pharmaceutical objects. His original book collection was sold in 1928, many of the books going to the New York Academy of Medicine. He donated his collection of weights and measures, related books, and pharmacy items to the Historical Library in 1941, and served as curator of the "museum" of the Historical Library from 1941 to 1947. He died in Stonington on July 17, 1947.

Processing Information

These materials were originally packed in large folders and were processed for easier use by readers. Two photographs that were used in Fulton's obituary of Streeter were removed to the Historical Library photograph collection.