Helen Forbes collection on medical wives

Collection

Call Number: Ms Coll 31

Scope and Contents

This collection documents some of Helen Forbes's activities as a medical faculty wife in the mid-twentieth century. Papers include lists of which faculty wives were responsible for daily student teas; account books and statistics on attendance at teas; newspaper clippings and other information on the annual Aesculapian Frolics; bylaws and a small amount of information and newspaper clippings on the activities of the Medical Dames/Wives; lists of married students; and a reception for the retirement of Medical Dean Vernon Lippard in 1967 that Mrs. Forbes helped to organize. Among the items is a Yale Medical Wives Association certificate conferring the degree of P.H.T. (putting husband through) to wives of graduating medical students.

Dates

1947-1969

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Yale does not own copyright.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Presumably donated to the Historical Library by Helen Forbes.

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.0031

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection documents some of Helen Forbes's activities as a medical faculty wife in the mid-twentieth century. Papers include lists of which faculty wives were responsible for daily student teas; account books and statistics on attendance at teas; newspaper clippings and other information on the annual Aesculapian Frolics; bylaws and a small amount of information and newspaper clippings on the activities of the Medical Dames/Wives; lists of married students; and a recetion for the retirement of Medical Dean Vernon Lippard in 1967 that Mrs. Forbes helped to organize. Among the items is a Yale Medical Wives Association certificate conferring the degree of P.H.T. (putting husband through) to wives of graduating medical students.

Biographical / Historical

Helen Allen Forbes, wife of medical professor and assistant/associate dean for education, Thomas Rogers Forbes, was a leader among medical faculty wives, organizing daily afternoon teas served by faculty wives to medical students; acting as a perennial sponsor and advisor for the annual Aesculapian Frolic, a benefit dance held by first year medical students; and serving as a sponsor for the Medical Dames or Medical Wives, an organization for wives of medical students. Yale Medical Dames appears to have been an early 1950s offshoot of Yale Dames, an organization for the wives of Yale graduate students. By 1960, the group was called the Medical Wives Association. During much of this period, most male medical students were married and there were only a handful of female students.