James Harvey Young Papers

Collection

Identifier: MS C 502

Abstract

James Harvey Young (b. 1915) is an internationally recognized authority on American food and drug regulation and the history of health quackery in the United States. The collection consists of the research correspondence that comprised Dr. Young's office files.

Dates

1943-1997

Extent

4 Linear Feet (4 boxes)

Creator

Young, James Harvey (Person)

Physical Location

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

Language of Materials

Collection materials primarily in English

Restrictions

No restrictions on access. 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

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Biographical Note

James Harvey Young (b. 1915) is an internationally recognized authority on American food and drug regulation and the history of health quackery in the United States. After earning his Masters degree and PhD at the University of Illinois, he became a professor at Emory University in 1941. While completing his nearly 40-year tenure at Emory, Dr. Young solidified his reputation by authoring such landmark books on the history of drug regulation and patent medicines as The Toadstool Millionaires (1961) and The Medical Messiahs (1967). During this period he also wrote about 100 articles for historical and medical history journals and reviewed more than 110 books published about American drug and medicine history.

Collection Summary

The collection is almost entirely correspondence with academic colleagues and research contacts at the FDA and medical associations. Among these were Oliver Field, of the American Medical Association, Louise Richards of the FDA and George Griffenhagen of the American Pharmaceutical Association. John Duffy and Rima Apple, historians specializing in medicine, were regularly consulted. Among Dr. Young's academic friends were Walter Rundell, Jr., Brooks McNamara, David Herbert Donald, James G. Burrow, Charles Jackson, Gerald Carson and Ann Beck.

The papers are arranged chronologically within each series, from 1943 through 1997, with a few folders devoted to particular correspondents or specifically oriented to drug research. Two small series are devoted to projects Dr. Young was instrumental in conducting: a special issue of the Emory University Quarterly and a symposium observing the 75th anniversary of the FDA at Emory University in 1981. Several folders hold writings and printed material that accrued with the correspondence.