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American Association for Thoracic Surgery Archives

 Collection
Identifier: MS C 355

Abstract

The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) was founded by Dr. Willy Meyer in 1917 as a venue devoted to exchanging ideas regarding the growing field of thoracic surgery. Other founding members of the AATS include Alexis Carrel, Armistead C. Crump, Nathan W. Green, Howard Lilienthal, Rudolph Matas, and Samuel Robinson. Institutional material, historical manuscripts and data, biographies, member information, curriculum vitae, bibliographies, correspondence, minutes, transcripts, programs, reports, reprints, and photographic media document the association's history and administrative practices and the professional accomplishments of its members.

Dates

  • 1899-2002

Extent

11 Linear Feet (9 boxes)

Creator

Physical Location

Materials stored onsite. History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine

Language of Materials

English

Restrictions

Collection is not restricted. Contact the Reference Staff for information regarding access.

Copyright and Re-use Information

Copyright was transferred to the National Library of Medicine. Written permission from the AATS is required to quote or publish.

Privacy Information

Archives and manuscript collections may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in any collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications for which the National Library of Medicine assumes no responsibility.

Historical Note

In 1913 Dr. Willy Meyer, director of surgery at the German Hospital in New York, presented a paper on "Extrathoracic and Intrathoracic Esophagoplasty . . ." at the American Medical Association Annual Meeting. Disappointed by the lack of interest in his topic, Meyer decided to create a venue devoted to exchanging ideas regarding the growing field of thoracic surgery. He began by inviting nineteen local colleagues to his home on February 20, 1917, and founding the New York Society for Thoracic Surgery. This was to be a society "for" thoracic surgery rather than "of" thoracic surgeons to encourage anyone with an interest in the field to participate. The original group of twenty men elected Meyer as permanent chairman and agreed to work toward forming a national organization.

The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) was formed at the American Medical Association Annual Meeting on June 7, 1917. It consisted of fifty founding members, including Meyer, Alexis Carrel, Armistead C. Crump, Nathan W. Green, Howard Lilienthal, Rudolph Matas, and Samuel Robinson. The first annual meeting of the AATS was held on June 10, 1918; the first constitution was adopted the following year. Meeting attendance grew slowly but steadily over the association's first two decades before expanding rapidly after WWII. Fifty years after its founding, AATS membership had grown to 685 and the annual meeting had expanded significantly.

As membership grew, the association developed mechanisms for carrying out educational and administrative functions. Papers presented at the annual meetings were published in the American Medical Association's Archives of Surgery before the AATS began publishing The Journal of Thoracic Surgery (now The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery) in October 1931 with Dr. Evarts Ambrose Graham as its first editor. In 1951 the AATS established the Evarts A. Graham Memorial Traveling Fellowship to bring foreign surgeons to North American medical facilities to train in cardiothoracic surgery. In 1970 the AATS engaged the firm of Professional Relations and Research Institute for the professional management of the association.

Collection Summary

Institutional material, historical manuscripts and data, biographies, member information, curriculum vitae, bibliographies, correspondence, minutes, transcripts, programs, reports, reprints, and photographic media (11 linear feet, 1899-2002) document the history and administrative practices of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the professional accomplishments of its members.

Historical information about the founding and growth of the association can be found in Series 1: Historical and Institutional Material. The Constitution and By-Laws of the Association are housed first in this series. For information on the administration of the AATS, the researcher should consult materials in Series 3-5. The vast majority of materials in these three series are minutes, transcripts, and/or agendas from various council, committee, and board meetings. Series 3: Annual Meetings gathers minutes that document general association business and activities, the decisions of the Executive Officers of the Council of the AATS, and the reports of various committees. Additional council and committee meeting minutes are located in Series 4: Executive Office, along with reports, financial ledgers, and correspondence from the association's first fifty years. The minutes in Series 5: Graham Education and Research Foundation document the meetings of its Board of Directors and the Evarts A. Graham Memorial Traveling Fellowship Committee. This last series also includes copies of the reports made by the traveling fellows.

Member information, statistics, and professional activities are documented in several places throughout the collection. The five subseries in Series 2: Membership contain member lists, biographical sketches and data, statistical reports from the Membership Committee, curriculum vitae and bibliographies, and photographs. The volume Founding of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (1917-1967) also contains biographies of fourteen founding members, including Willy Meyer and Evarts A. Graham. Series 3: Annual Meetings has a subseries of programs that include abstracts of papers presented by AATS members and their professional colleagues. Reprints of articles written by members such as Armistead C. Crump are gathered in Series 6: Member Writings.

Abstract

The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) was founded by Dr. Willy Meyer in 1917 as a venue devoted to exchanging ideas regarding the growing field of thoracic surgery. Other founding members of the AATS include Alexis Carrel, Armistead C. Crump, Nathan W. Green, Howard Lilienthal, Rudolph Matas, and Samuel Robinson. Institutional material, historical manuscripts and data, biographies, member information, curriculum vitae, bibliographies, correspondence, minutes, transcripts, programs, reports, reprints, and photographic media document the association's history and administrative practices and the professional accomplishments of its members.

Physical Location

Materials stored onsite. History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine

Provenance

Gift of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, 1978; ACC 274 (1978), 667 (1991), and 2006-038.

General

Processed by
HMD Staff; Erica Haakensen
Processing Completed
c.1978; 2006
Encoded by
Electronic Scriptorium; Erica Haakensen
Title
Finding Aid to the American Association for Thoracic Surgery Archives, 1899-2002
Status
Unverified Partial Draft
Author
HMD Staff; Erica Haakensen
Date
c.1978; 2006
Language of description
English
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English
Edition statement
2.0

Collecting Area Details

Part of the Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collection Collecting Area

Contact:
8600 Rockville Pike
Bldg 38/1E-21, MSC 3819
Bethesda MD 20894 US
1-888-FINDNLM (1-888-346-3656)