Dr. Robert H. Babcock papers, 1976-1938, bulk 1880-1925

Descriptive Inventory for the Collection at Chicago History Museum

By Carroll Mickey, rev. by Jennifer Asimakopolis.

Please address questions to:

Chicago History Museum, Research Center

1601 North Clark Street

Chicago, IL 60614-6038

http://www.chicagohistory.org/research

© Copyright 2005, Chicago Historical Society

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Title: Dr. Robert H. Babcock papers [manuscript], 1876-1938, bulk 1880-1925.

Main entry: Babcock, Robert H., 1851-1930.

Inclusive dates: 1876-1938, bulk 1880-1925.

Size: 0.5 linear ft. (1 box)

Access: Collection is open for research use.

Provenance statement: Gift of George Lill, II (1985.0129).

Terms governing use: Copyright may be retained by the creators of items, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law, unless otherwise noted.

Please cite this collection as: Dr. Robert H. Babcock papers (Chicago History Museum) plus a detailed description, date, and box/folder number of a specific item.

The descriptive inventory contains the following sections:

Biographical note,

Summary description of the collection,

Description of some material related to the collection,

List of online catalog headings about the collection,

Arrangement of the collection,

Detailed description of archival series in the collection,

List of contents of the collection.

Biographical note:

Noted Chicago physician Dr. Robert H. Babcock was born on July 26, 1851, in Watertown, New York. When he was an infant, his parents, Robert S. and Emily H. Babcock, made their residence in Kalamazoo, Michigan. At the age of 13, on April 12, 1865, he lost his sight in an accidental explosion of gunpowder. For two years, he attended the Institute for the Blind in Philadelphia. Beginning in the fall of 1867, he attended preparatory school at Olivet, Michigan, for two years before enrolling in Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio. Ill health brought an interruption to his education in 1870, but a year later he returned to college as a member of the class of 1874. He transferred to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, but he refused to comply with certain graduation requirements that he regarded as unjust. The degrees of A.B. and A.M. were subsequently conferred by Adelbert College of Western Reserve University. He began the study of medicine in the Ann Arbor Medical College in 1874, and two years later he entered the Chicago Medical College from which he obtained the M.D. degree in 1878. In the following year, he continued training in medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and received a diploma with honors. He then devoted three years, 1880-1883, to further study and clinical training in Berlin, Munich, and Wurzburg, Germany.

Dr. Babcock entered practice in Chicago in 1883, and he established a residence in the city with his wife Lizzie C. (Weston) whom he married on June 12, 1879. From 1891 to 1905, he held the Chair of Clinical Medicine and Diseases of the Chest in the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons, and he served for a number of years as an attending physician in the Cook County Hospital. He wrote a basic text on pulmonary diseases, and later when he turned attention to studies of the heart, he wrote a widely acclaimed text and another book for the general reader on this specialty.

Dr. Babcock and his wife Lizzie had two children, a daughter, Eleanor, and a son, Weston. His wife died in 1920, and he died at the age of 79 on June 28, 1930, in Princeton, Wisconsin.

Summary description of the collection:

Personal papers of Dr. Robert H. Babcock, a blind Chicago physician, include of a book of memoirs about his boyhood written by his mother, Emily (Hall) Babcock; 5 folders of letters he wrote (typed) to his parents while he was a medical student in Germany from 1880-1883; miscellaneous correspondence, 1876-1925; an autobiography and a tribute to his wife, Lizzie Weston Babcock, which he wrote from 1913 to 1916 and addressed to his children; a scrapbook of news clippings concerning Dr. Babcock's career, letters written for a testimonial dinner in 1925, condolence letters and memorials received by his family upon his death in 1930; and a list of his publications and some reprints of articles.

List of online catalog headings about the collection:

The following headings were placed in the online catalog for this collection.

Subject:

Babcock, Robert H. (Robert Hall), 1851-1930--Archives.

Babcock, Emily Hall.

Blind--Education--Germany--19th century.

Blind--Education--United States--19th century.

Blind--Illinois--Chicago--19th century.

Blind--Illinois--Chicago--20th century.

Children--Michigan--Kalamazoo--19th century.

Families--Illinois--Chicago--19th century.

Families--Illinois--Chicago--20th century.

Physicians--Illinois--Chicago--19th century.

Physicians--Illinois--Chicago--20th century.

Physicians--Illinois--Chicago--Biography.

Sanatoriums--Germany--19th century.

Chicago (Ill.)--Social conditions.

Germany--Description and travel--19th century.

Kalamazoo (Mich.)--Social conditions--19th century.

Form/genre:

Autobiographies.

Correspondence.

Memoirs.

Scrapbooks.

Added entry:

Babcock, Emily Hall.

Germany--Prussia--Brandenburg--Berlin.

United States--Illinois--Cook County--Chicago.

United States--Michigan--Kalamazoo County--Kalamazoo.

Container list of box/folder numbers and titles:

Box 1

Folders:

1 Brief biographies of Dr. Babcock in articles and memorials

2 Scrapbook of news items

3 Book of memoirs about Dr. Babcock's early years by his mother, Emily (Hall) Babcock

4 Various letters of personal interest, 1876, 1877, 1907 and 1920

5 Letters to his parents from Hildresheim, Germany, 1880

6 Letters to his parents from Berlin, Germany, 1881

7 Letters from Scandinavian countries, 1881

8 Letters from his wife, Lizzie (Weston) Babcock to her parents from Europe, 1881-1882

9 Letters to his parents from Munich, 1882-1883

10 Miscellaneous clinical notes, 1893

11 Miscellaneous letters from colleagues, 1908-1925

12 Autobiography and tribute to his wife, 1913-1916

13 Letters for testimonial dinner, Nov 10, 1925

14 Letters of condolence at time of his death, 1930

15 Miscellaneous correspondence of his daughter Eleanor (Mrs. Merrill Coil), 1930, 1938

16 List of publications, reprints of articles