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Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, circa 1913-1914
Earlier this month, the Center for the History of Medicine and the Brigham and Women's Hospital Medical Library announced that the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital Records, 1911-1980 are now formally open for research. The collection is the last of the major collections of the BWH Archives to be cataloged and opened to the public.
The collection of historic material related to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (PBBH), one of BWH's predecessors, includes photographs, memorabilia-including a menu and china from founder Peter Bent Brigham's restaurant, a World War I service flag and many of nurse Carrie Hall's service medals from the same war-business records and historic publications. All were created before the hospital's merger with the Boston Hospital for Women and Robert Breck Brigham Hospital in 1975, and while it operated as a division of the Affiliated Hospitals Center until 1980, when the institutions combined under the new name Brigham and Women's Hospital.
The collection includes 1911 construction records for the original 225-bed pavilion-style hospital, as well as for later additions. All of the hospital's annual reports, executive committee meeting minutes and Board of Trustees meeting records tell the story of the growth of a major metropolitan hospital from its opening in 1913 through the development of modern medicine during the 20th century. It also includes records of the PBBH School of Nursing, which became one of the preeminent training programs for nurses in the U.S. Additionally, 34 years of stories from BWH Bulletin predecessor, the Brigham Bulletin, add depth to the hospital's biography with weekly personal stories about the individuals and events of the organization.
Photographs comprise the largest portion of the collection, providing thousands of images of hospital, staff and activities from 1911 to 1980. The archival collection includes images of some of the individuals whose work at PBBH significantly advanced medical science and education, including Francis Moore, MD, the "father of modern surgery"; Harvey Cushing, MD, the first PBBH surgeon-in-chief and an innovator in neurosurgery; and Joseph E. Murray, MD, the 1990 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
Mid-century nurse uniforms, caps and capes, scrapbooks, audio recordings, newspaper clippings, old medical instruments, student notebooks from the nursing school and the contents of the PBBH 1963 time capsule are some of the additional objects that can be found in the collection.
Visit the online collection guide to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital Records. Email BWHmedicallibrary@partners.org with questions.