Traill Green, Autograph letter signed, Easton, Pa., to Louis W. Zimmern Heidelberg Mineralogical Institute Germany, 31 January 1852

Item — Box: 1, Folder: 1

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: This collection of the personal papers of Traill Green (1813-1897), spanning 1845 to 1868, consists of correspondence, case descriptions of patients, a committee report, the transcript of a speech, excerpts from published materials, and other miscellaneous items.

Series 1, spanning 1845 to 1857, consists of letters written and received by Traill Green, many of which are drafts. Of special interest in the correspondence are Green's letters pertaining to the remains of a mastodon giganteum that were discovered in New Jersey in September 1851. Green had acquired these remains and was storing them in his house, hoping that an institution in Easton would purchase them. This plan was unsuccessful, and Green began contacting institutions abroad. In his letter of 20 January 1852 to Louis W. Zimmern of the Heidelberg Mineralogy Institute, Green suggests that the mastodon could be purchased or perhaps traded for minerals. In his second letter to Zimmern (31 January 1852), Green provides detailed dimensions, including a drawing, of the mastodon's bones and tusks. Also included is a letter (10 February 1852) to Sir Richard Owen, a British naturalist who later became Superintendent of the Natural History Department of the British Museum.

Much of the correspondence in Series 1 documents Green's vital role in the community of Easton. The letters of 11 July 1855, 29 August 1855, and 21 September 1857 relate to his position as the President of the Board of Directors of the Easton Cemetery. Three letters written in November 1856 document Green's involvement in the establishment of a high school for girls in Easton. In his letter to the Easton Board of School Directors, Green writes that "the spirit of the age, the position now occupied by females in social life, and the good name of our borough, all demand a female school of the first class". Also included is correspondence to and from Seth I. Tharp, the first director of Easton's Female High School.

Some of Green's correspondence pertains to medical issues; in a letter addressed to the Sanitary Committee of the Borough of Easton (25 August 1854), Green expresses his disapproval of the treatment of cholera patients. In the same letter, Green praises the nurses "who have been faithful in their office" during the cholera epidemic. In another letter, also addressed to the Borough of Easton, Green voices his concerns about the unsanitary condition of Spring Garden Street, his residence in Easton.

Series 2 contains case descriptions of two of Green's patients. Included is Green's report of a woman suffering jfrom an illness which caused convulsions and nausea (24 November 1854-29 June 1855); included in the report are the drafts of three letters to D. N. Reese, a physician Green was consulting in the case. Also present is a report of a man who dislocated the metatarsal bones in his foot (23 January 1857). This rare injury was attended to by Green and another physician, Edward Swift. The details of the case appear in Samuel D. Gross's System of Surgery (1859).

Miscellaneous material is contained in Series 3. The report of the Medical Society of Northampton County's Committee on "Clerico Medical Examiners" expresses Green's disapproval of clerics who attempted to practice medicine without the proper training and qualifications. Also of note is a transcript of a speech given by William C. Cattell, President of Lafayette College, on the dedication of Lafayette's observatory. Traill Green had donated the money for the building on the condition that his gift remain anonymous. In the speech, Cattell explains that he was "not permitted to give the name of the founder of the O[bservatory] but that [the founder's] name would ever be green in the memory of the friends of the college". Also contained in Series 3 is a brief genealogy of the Traill family.