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Lois B. Murphy Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS C 280c

Abstract

Contains correspondence, memoranda, reports, talks, drafts, reprints and printed matter pertaining to the child development movement. Among the organizations and conferences represented are the Gesell Clinic, the Yale University Child Study Center, the Cornell-N. Y. Hospital Institute of Child Health, the World Health Organization and the 1940 White House Conference. A sizable portion of the correspondence and reprints pertain to individual projects... and publications.

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Dates

  • Creation: 1905-1992 (bulk 1932-1992)

Extent

12.5 Linear Feet (12 boxes)

Creator

Physical Location

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

Language of Materials

Collection materials primarily in English

Access Restrictions

Collection is restricted. Portions of the collection are restricted according to HMD's Access to Health Information of Individuals policy. Contact the Reference Staff for information regarding access. For access to the policy and application form, please visit https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/manuscripts/phi.pdf.

Copyright and Re-use Information

Copyright was not transferred to the public domain.

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....

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Biographical Note

Born in 1902 in Lisbon, Iowa, Lois Barclay Murphy attended Vassar College and earned a masters in theology from Union Theological Seminary. She had been fired from teaching comparative religion at Sarah Lawrence College when by chance she met the head of the Macy Foundation in New York. He solicited her to conduct a study of sympathy in pre-schoolers. Not only did the study become her doctoral dissertation at Columbia University, it was later published... as Social Behavior in Child Personality (1937). This work launched her career as a child psychologist, and is regarded as a pioneering study in social psychology. Her original study showed that children as young as 2 could show caring for each other, defend each other, or warn each other about danger. After her studies in New York, Murphy started the first child development center at Sarah Lawrence College. She later moved to the Menninger Foundation in Kansas, where her husband Gardner Murphy, a noted psychologist in his own right, had become director. Here she helped conduct one of the early landmark studies of infants and preschoolers.

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Collection Summary

Correspondence, memoranda, reports, talks, drafts, reprints and printed matter document Lois Murphy's professional work in the field of child psychology and development.

Oral histories and family correspondence comprise the major portion of the biographical information. Correspondence (1935-1985) of professional content is divided between general exchanges and copies of letters generated by Dr. Murphy.

Murphy's writings are divided into four main... categories: reprints of articles (1935-1983); clipped, typewritten and drafts of other articles (1932-1992) ) including rough drafts of Murphy's book Development, Vulnerability, and Resilience later published as Vulnerability, Coping, and Growth: From Infancy to Adolescence (1976); notes and texts of talks given by Dr. Murphy (1940-1980); as well as papers presented at conferences by Dr. Murphy (1939-1970).

Subject files concern people and institutions involved in research and publications related to child development as well as documentation of consulting work in Africa and India, and work with some specific projects. Smaller collection segments hold late-1960s field reports on conditions at parent-child education centers throughout the U.S. and documentation of proposals for and structures of research studies (1927-1968) from work at Sarah Lawrence College and at the Menninger Foundation. Case studies of children (1938-1973), compiled by Dr. Murphy and her associates are restricted by HMD's Access to Personally Identifiable Health Information policy.

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