Skip to main content

Irvine H. Page, M.D. Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS C 386

Abstract

Irvine H. Page, M.D., was born in 1901 in Indianapolis. From 1931 to 1937 while working with Dr. Donald Van Slyke at the Rockefeller Institute Dr. Page began a life-long series of investigations on hypertension. A large portion of the collection relates to the National Academy of Sciences. The collection also contains volumes of laboratory data and notes taken by Page from chemistry lectures in college, notes on his unpublished history of hypertension research, and copies of his editorials and reprints.

Dates

  • 1917-1989

Extent

10.8 Linear Feet (12 ms boxes, 51 volumes, case items)

Creator

Physical Location

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

Language of Materials

Collection materials primarily in English

Restrictions

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

Copyright and Re-use Information

Donor's copyrights were transferred to the public domain. Archival collections often contain mixed copyrights; while NLM is the owner of the physical items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. It is the user's responsibility to research and understand any applicable copyright and re-publication rights not allowed by fair use. NLM does not grant permissions to 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.

Biographical Note

Irvine H. Page, M.D., was born in 1901 in Indianapolis. A graduate of the Cornell University and Cornell Medical College, he interned at Presbyterian and Bellevue Hospitals in New York. After his internship, he pursued his interest in physical chemistry, first at Woods Hole and then, starting in 1928, at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Munich where he started a department of brain chemistry. From 1931 to 1937 while working with Dr. Donald Van Slyke at the Rockefeller Institute Dr. Page began a life-long series of investigations on hypertension. He then served until 1945 as Director of the Laboratory for Clinical Research at Eli Lilly Company's research unit at City Hospital in Indianapolis. It was while he was there that Page and his colleagues discovered angiotensin. In 1945 Dr. Page left Indianapolis to form a new research division at the Cleveland Clinic where he remained for thirty-three years.

Collection Summary

Dr. Page's papers in the National Library of Medicine reflect two distinct phases of his career. The bulk of the collection is devoted to his efforts from 1964 to establish a National Academy of Medicine (NAM). The material is divided into three series. The first documents his initial efforts which led to three organizational meetings for a National Academy in Cleveland in 1967. Included are his initial editorials in Modern Medicine on the need for a National Academy and the responses to his editorials and letters from leaders in American medicine. Among the frequent correspondents are Robert A. Aldrich, William Bean, Colin MacLeod, and Irving S. Wright. The second series is devoted to the records of the Board of Medicine (BOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. Starting in 1967 the BOM became more interested in the question of a National Academy, and from 1968 to 1970 the bulk of Page's efforts took place within the context of the BOM. In 1970 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences was created, and the third series documents some of the early activities of the IOM. Also included is Page's correspondence leading up to his history of the IOM published in JAMA in 1988. Major correspondents included George Lundberg, Samuel O. Thier and Dwight L. Wilbur.

In addition to his papers on the establishment of the IOM, the Library also has a collection of miscellaneous personal and professional papers, including many of Page's early research reports. Series 5 consists of an accession received shortly before Dr. Page's death on 10 June 1991. It consists of biographical material on Page, his personal and professional correspondence postdating 1968, with the bulk dated after 1984, and his manuscripts and unfinished papers, many of which also contain correspondence. Of special note is his unfinished history of hypertension research. Correspondents from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation include C.M. Ferrario, Ray Gifford, Shattuck W. Hastwell, Bernadine Healey, and William Kiser. Other correspondents include Lois DeBakey, Erwin Di Cyan, Donald Frederickson, Edward Frolich, Jacques Genest, Richard Helms, Tadashi Inagami, Kenneth Kohlstaedt, William Manger, Yoskiaki Masuyama, Bruce Millar (of Grune & Stratton), Marvin Moser, E.E. Muirhead, Russell Ross, James Shannon, Frederick Stare, Paul Vanhoutte, and Dwight Wilbur.

The Publication series consists of Page's editorials for Modern Medicine, and his bound and unbound reprints. Frequently bound with Page's reprints are copies of publications by his colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic. Series 7 contains notebooks from Page's chemistry and other courses at Cornell University and some research notebooks. The series consisting of material not related to the Institute of Medicine should be used in conjunction with the much larger collection of Page papers in the Cleveland Clinic Archives.

Abstract

Irvine H. Page, M.D., was born in 1901 in Indianapolis. From 1931 to 1937 while working with Dr. Donald Van Slyke at the Rockefeller Institute Dr. Page began a life-long series of investigations on hypertension. A large portion of the collection relates to the National Academy of Sciences. The collection also contains volumes of laboratory data and notes taken by Page from chemistry lectures in college, notes on his unpublished history of hypertension research, and copies of his editorials and reprints.

Physical Location

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

Provenance

Dr. Page's papers were originally given to the library in 1978. A second donation of papers relating to the Institute of Medicine followed in 1989.

General

Processed by
Mildred Asbell
Processing completed
1991
Encoded by
Dan Jenkins, Electronic Scriptorium
Title
Finding Aid to the Irvine H. Page, M.D. Papers, 1917-1989
Status
Unverified Partial Draft
Author
Mildred Asbell
Date
1991
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latn
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English
Edition statement
Version 1.0

Revision Statements

  • July 2004: PUBLIC "-//National Library of Medicine::History of Medicine Division//TEXT (US::DNLM::MS C 386::Irvine H. Page, M.D. Papers)//EN" "page" converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (sy2003-10-15).

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)