Featured in Child magazine, February 2001

Item — Oversize: 3

Identifier: IX

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Records provide a catalog of the administrators, doctors, nurses, and patients who shaped and served this pediatric hospital between the years 1855 to 2006. The records span three centuries, from the hospital’s founding by Dr. Francis West Lewis in late 1855, to the year 2006, as CHOP was ranked the #1 pediatric hospital in the United States for its third successive year by “Child” Magazine. The bulk of the materials in this collection are concentrated within the years 1960 to the late 1990’s.

There are a number of material formats present in the collection. Primary types include paper documents, bound volumes, photographs, and slides. Remaining formats include: newspaper clippings, film reels, oil paintings, framed prints, oversized documents, and Betamax, VHS, and audio cassette tapes.

The collection has been arranged into nine series: “Administration,” “Public Relations,”, “Planning and Development,” “Departments,” “Biographical,” “Clippings,” “Bound Volumes,” “Images,” and "Ephemera." The bulk of the records are concentrated within the thirty year time span of 1960 to 1999.

Within and across these series are a number of notable subjects, which include:

The changing nature of healthcare in the United States over the past two centuries, and the impact of the rise of managed care since the 1970’s.

The “Bound Volumes” series contains a number of Doctor’s Case Books, dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Contained in these volumes are a number of charts within which information was recorded such as race, age, address, parent information, housing type, diet, stools, and medicine administered.

Pediatric medical advancements spearheaded by physicians at the Children’s Hospital, such as the development of vaccines and successful organ transplants. Information on these types of advancements can be found in specific doctor files within the "Biographical" series.

Modern medical ethics, specifically issues related to a number of cases of conjoined twins operated on at the Children’s Hospital between the years 1957 and 2002. Materials on medical ethics can be found throughout the “Public Relations,” “Clippings,” and “Biographical” series.

Primary types of materials include:

Public Relations materials. Documents originating from the Public Relations department are plentiful and consist of reports, correspondence, brochures, press materials, and newsletters. These materials begin in the 1940s and stretch into the early 2000’s.

Images. There is a huge number of photographs, slides, negatives, and film in the collection. These images primarily concern buildings, patients, and staff. Many duplicate images can be found within the “Prints,” “Slides,” and “Negatives” subseries’.

Bound volumes. Materials from the late 19th to the early 20th century are almost exclusively in the form of bound volumes, which consist of annual reports, and patient and visitor registries. The bound volumes are primarily older, starting with original material from 1855. Many of the volumes are fragile and folder stock enclosures have been made to protect them.

Dates

February 2001

Conditions Governing Access

Access to this collection is restricted and requires permission from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia PR/Marketing department. Reproduction is restricted and requires additional permission from the department.

Series V, "Biographical," contains some restricted materials: Box 75 has been restricted as per Shirley Bonnem's request, and a number of the CV's included in the individual biographical files contain Social Security numbers.