Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts and Archives Department

MARION COUNTY GENERAL HOSPITAL
COLLECTION, 1861-1979


Collection #
M 0430
OMB 0025
BV 2110-2142, 2587-2590


Table of Contents

Collection Information
Historical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Box and Folder Inventory
Cataloging Information

Processed by
Charles Latham
April, 1986
November, 1990


COLLECTION INFORMATION

VOLUME OF COLLECTION:

6 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box, 37 bound volumes and visual materials

COLLECTION DATES:

1861-1979

PROVENANCE:

Gift of the Indiana Medical History Museum, 3000 West Washington Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, 28 June 1985

RESTRICTIONS:

None

REPRODUCTION RIGHTS:

Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society.

ALTERNATE FORMATS:

None

OTHER FINDING AIDS:

None

RELATED HOLDINGS:

M 0071, Indianapolis Flower Mission Records

ACCESSION NUMBER:

1985.0624

NOTES:

Bound periodicals acquired with this collection were transferred to Printed Collections.


HISTORICAL SKETCH

Indianapolis City Hospital was founded in 1855, at the instance of Dr. Livingston Dunlap. The first building was completed in 1859 in a boggy area at the junction of Indiana Avenue and Fall Creek. By the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, this building was not yet furnished or operating as a hospital. During the war it was taken over and expanded by the federal government, and was operated as a hospital by members of the Sisters of Providence from Saint Mary's in the Woods. In 1866 the city again took over the hospital. Under the superintendence of Dr. William N. Wishard (1879-1887) a new building was constructed. At the same time (1883) a nurses' training school evolved from the efforts of the Indianapolis Flower Mission, which had begun as a group of young ladies distributing flowers and jellies to patients. A medical school developed from Indiana Medical College, which at different times from 1871 had connections with Indiana and Purdue Universities. In 1911 the Robert W. Long Hospital was built as a teaching hospital affiliated with Indiana University. In the early 1920s, the Riley Hospital was opened for children, also a teaching hospital. These two hospitals were both in the same area as City Hospital. In 1947 the name of City Hospital was changed to Indianapolis General Hospital; in 1959 the name changed again, to Marion County General Hospital. The present name is Wishard Memorial Hospital.

Sunnyside Sanitorium was an outgrowth of the pulmonary department of City Hospital. It began in 1917 with a building on a campus east of Indianapolis near Oaklandon. Additional buildings opened during the 1920s. The sanitorium continued to operate until 1969, when new methods of treating tuberculosis made it unnecessary.


SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

This collection consists of minutes, reports, articles, ledgers, and scrapbooks from Indianapolis City Hospital (Marion County General Hospital) and the tuberculosis sanitorium, medical school, and nursing school affiliated with it. The collection also includes some awards presented to Dr. Charles W. Meyer. It is arranged in categories corresponding to those administrative divisions, and topically within each category.

The collection begins with the material on the hospital itself. There is a box of historical material, amplified by clippings and by fourteen scrapbooks. There are minutes of the hospital board for one year, 1944-1945, and a collection of annual reports for the years 1919-1976 (incomplete). Records of administration and operation include early patient ledgers and other records, and some policy manuals and handbooks. There is a complete file of the hospital's recent newsletters: Life...in General (1957-1972-cataloged with Printed Collections RA 982 .I55 W5), and Health Capsule (1972-1979- OMB 0025). This category concludes with considerable material from the occupational therapy department in the 1940s and 1950s, and scattered records of other departments.

The material on Sunnyside Sanitorium begins with some historical material. Handbooks for both employees and patients give an idea of the general routine, as do records of meetings of department heads (1947-1961). There are also annual reports of the sanitorium (1919-1959 incomplete) and from the rehabilitation department (1943-1953).

Records from the medical school include an early list of students and a few early admission certificates. The body of the material in this category concerns a postgraduate course in ear-nose-throat in the 1940s.

The most important material on the school of nursing is early records of the Indianapolis Flower Mission which helped start the school. (Additional material on the Flower Mission is available in M 0071.) Other items are catalogs (a selection from 1921 to 1976), handbooks (1959-1974), and two yearbooks.


BOX AND FOLDER INVENTORY

I. MARION COUNTY GENERAL HOSPITAL

BOX 1
A. History

FOLDER

CONTENTS

1

Sisters of Providence (use 1861-1865)

2

Thurman B. Rice history, 1947

3

William N. Wishard, Jr., history, 1965

4

History, 1973

5

General historical

6

Copy for historical booklet

7

Historical committee correspondence 1962-1966

8

Dr. Livingston Dunlap (founder)

9

Dr. Charles W. Myers (director)

10

Report by citizens' committee, 1957

11

Clippings 1920-1960

12

Clippings 1975-1977

13

Clippings, general

14

Scrapbooks 1942-69 Marion County General Hospital (BV 2124-2137, 2587-2590)

15

Red Cross participation, WWII

16

Scrapbook: National Hospital Day, 1933 (BV 2138)

 

B. Board

FOLDER

CONTENTS

17

Minutes and reports, 1944-1945

18

1953 State Supreme Court judgment re: Health and Hospital Corporation

19

Annual reports, 1934-1940

20

Annual reports, 1943-1944

 

BOX 2

FOLDER

CONTENTS

1

Annual reports, 1945-46

2

Annual reports, 1947-48

3

Annual reports, 1949-50

4

Annual reports, 1951-52

5

Annual reports, 1953, 1955

6

Annual reports, 1973, 1974, 1976

 

C. Administration

FOLDER

CONTENTS

7

Handbooks

8

Manuals of policy

9

Patient ledgers 1863, 1888, 1898, 1909-1931 (BV 2110-2121); Autopsy reports (BV 2122) Patient valuables 1906-1908 (BV 2139) Prescriptions 1873-1876 (BV 2123)

10

OB patient records 1931

 

BOX 3

FOLDER

CONTENTS

1

List of charges 1941

2

Financial records 1953-1955

3

Maps, plans

4

Staff

5-7

Biographical sketches of staff

8

Awards

9

Chapel

10

St. Margaret's Guild

11

Appropriations for 1908

 

D. Publications

FOLDER

CONTENTS

12

"Health Capsule" 1972-1979 (OMB 0025)

 

E. Departments

FOLDER

CONTENTS

13

Annual reports 1940-1947

14

Annual reports 1948-1956

15

Manuals and general policies

16

Emergency medical services

17

Lilly clinic

18

Regenstreif Health Center

19

Shock unit

20

Article favoring retention of neuro-psychiatric dept.

 

II. SUNNYSIDE SANATORIUM

FOLDER

CONTENTS

21

History of TB clinics

22

History of Sunnyside

23

Scrapbooks BV 2140-2142

24

Administration and operation-- Hospital routine

25

Administration and operation-- Routine rehabilitation

26

Administration and operation-- Employees handbook

27

Administration and operation-- Outline of exercise

28

Administration and operation-- Training workbooks

 

BOX 4

FOLDER

CONTENTS

1

Administration and operation-- "A day at Sunnyside"

2

Administration and operation -- Annual reports 1919-1927

3

Administration and operation -- Annual reports 1940-1944

4

Administration and operation -- Annual reports 1947-1949

5

Administration and operation -- Annual reports 1951-1955

6

Administration and operation -- Annual reports 1956-1959

7

Legislation and legal opinions

8

Department heads meetings-- 1947-1948

9

Department heads meetings -- 1949

10

Department heads meetings -- 1950

11

Department heads meetings -- 1951

12

Department heads meetings -- 1952

13

Department heads meetings -- 1953

14

Department heads meetings -- 1954

15

Department heads meetings -- 1955

16

Department heads meetings -- 1956

17

Department heads meetings -- 1957

18

Department heads meetings -- 1958-1961

19

Rehabilitation department-- annual reports 1943-1953

20

Rehabilitation department -- annual reports 1954-1961

 

BOX 5

FOLDER

CONTENTS

1

School: Legislation and legal opinions

2

School record 1940-1944

3

School: Commencement programs 1949-1959

4

Sunnyside Guild

5

Pamphlets

 

III. MEDICAL SCHOOL

FOLDER

CONTENTS

6

Students 1891-1892

7

Certificates for admission 1904

8

Postgraduate course in ear-nose-throat 1940s

9

Pamphlets on otolaryngology

 

IV. SCHOOL OF NURSING

FOLDER

CONTENTS

10

Historical

11

History of Indianapolis Flower Mission by Harriet B. Smith

12

Flower Mission yearbooks-- 1884-1885

13

Flower Mission yearbooks -- 1886-1887

14

Flower Mission yearbooks -- 1890

15

Flower Mission yearbooks -- 1894

16

Catalogs 1921-1978 (incomplete)

 

BOX 6

FOLDER

CONTENTS

1

Handbooks 1959-1974

2

Graduate program for psychiatric nurses

3

Miscellaneous printed

4

Individual nurses

5

Clippings

6

Yearbook 1926, Scrapbook Class of 1926 (BV 2587-89), Scrapbook 1959-1962 (BV 2590)

7

Yearbook 1952

8

Oversize

 

OMB 25

FOLDER

CONTENTS

1

Charles W. Meyer, Croix de Guerre, 1915 and miscellaneous forms

2

Charles W. Meyer, Citation, 1918

3

Charles W. Meyer, Distinguished Service Cross, 1918

4

Health Capsule, 1972-1973

5

Health Capsule, 1974-1975

6

Health Capsule, 1976-1977

7

Health Capsule, 1978-1979

8

Merit Award, 1937


CATALOGING INFORMATION

For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:

  1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog
  2. Click on the "Local Catalog" icon.
  3. Search for the collection by its call number, using the letter or letters designation and four digits (e.g., M 0715, SC 2234).
  4. When you find the collection, go to the "Holdings" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.

END