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Cabot, Richard C. (Richard Clarke), 1868-1939. Papers of Richard Clarke Cabot : an inventory

Harvard University Archives

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©President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2006

Descriptive Summary

Repository: Harvard University Archives
Call No.: HUG 4255.xx
Title: Papers of Richard Clarke Cabot, 1886-1974 (inclusive), 1888-1939 (bulk)
Quantity: ca. 255 boxes
Abstract: Richard Clarke Cabot (1868-1939) was a physician and medical educator whose interests included social work, religion and medicine, and medical ethics. The Papers of Richard Clarke Cabot document both his professional and family life.
Note: This document last updated 2006 August 23.
Language of materials: English.

Related Materials

Processing Note:

The Papers Richard Clarke Cabot were processed in two separate projects. The first was in 1977-1978. Several subsequent accessions and unprocessed material from the older accession were processed in 1997. Researchers should be aware that a thorough perusal of both sections of this finding aid is necessary because both portions contain material of similar natures. The finding aid has a great deal of detail, but its overall organization does not provide sufficient guidance for researchers.

Overall Organization of the Collection

The first project processed 126 containers. These materials are referred to collectively as Correspondence and other papers, 1886-1939. The second project processed 129 containers. There is no collective name for this material. It is instead organized into the following series: Biographical Material, Correspondence, Writings, Teaching Material, Lectures of Professor Rosenstock-Huessy, and Medical Records.

Restrictions:

Restrictions on access to the collection apply. Portions of the collection are closed. Contact Harvard University Archives Reference staff for details.

Biography of Richard Clarke Cabot

Richard Clarke Cabot (1868-1939) was a physician and medical educator whose interests included social work, religion and medicine, and medical ethics. He taught at Harvard University, where his courses were in the fields of clinical medicine, philosophy, and social ethics, from 1902 until 1934. He practiced at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1898 until 1921.
Cabot was born on May 21, 1868 in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the fifth son of James Elliot and Elizabeth (Dwight) Cabot. He attended the Nobel and Greenough School after which he attended Harvard. He received his A.B. degree summa cum laude in 1889 and his M.D. in 1892. On October 26, 1894, Cabot married Ella Lyman (1866-1934).
He started his medical career at Massachusetts General Hospital and continued as a member of the consulting staff there until his death. He was also a consultant to the New England Hospital for Women and Children, the Westboro School for Boys, and the Lancaster School for Girls. He was an army doctor on the hospital ship Bay State in the Spanish-American War and at a base hospital in France during World War I.
He was a maverick in the medical field, favoring socialized medicine and founding a department of medical social work at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1905. He also created the teaching method known as the clinicopathological conference (C.P.C.).
Cabot's teaching career spanned nearly four decades. At Harvard, he was Lecturer on Philosophy (1902-1903), Instructor in Clinical Medicine (1903-1908), Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine (1908-1913), Assistant Professor of Medicine (1913-1918), Professor of Clinical Medicine (1918-1933), and Professor of Social Ethics (1920-1934). From 1935 to 1939, he was professor of natural theology at the Andover-Newton Theological School.
Cabot's earliest writings were on blood, serum, and physical diagnosis. His clinical studies resulted in a series of famous medical books including Physical Diagnosis, Case Histories in Medicine, and Differential Diagnosis. His later writings were on ethics and include What Men Live By, The Meaning of Right and Wrong, and Adventures on the Borderland of Ethics.
He belonged to many professional organizations, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association of American Physicians, the American Medical Association, the Massachusetts Medical Society, Sigma Xi, and the National Conference of Social Work, of which he was president in 1930. Cabot received various honors throughout his career, including the gold medal of the National Institute of Social Sciences (1931) and three honorary degrees, an LL.D. (Rochester, 1930), an L.D.H. (Syracuse, 1934) and a D.D. (Colby, 1938).
He died on May 7, 1939 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Scope of the Richard Clarke Cabot Papers

This collection documents both Cabot's professional life and his family life. A large subseries documents the efforts of Ada P. McCormick to produce a biography of Cabot.
Cabot's professional interests are reflected in medical records, teaching materials, writings, and speeches. These records document his practice of medicine, his interest in social medicine, medical ethics and religion, and the teaching of both clinical and social aspects of medicine.
Personal, family, and biographical material consists of both original documents, such as diaries, photographs, and correspondence, and research notes and manuscripts, such as Ada McCormick's interviews with family and friends and drafts of portions of the biography she began to write.

Overview of Series and Subseries in the Collection

Provenance:

Bequest of Ada P. McCormick, and gifts of Andrew Dodds, Richard Hocking, Arthur Linenthal, and Schlesinger Library.
Accession numbers:
  • 7644,
  • 7682,
  • 7835,
  • 9170,
  • 9324,
  • 9356,
  • 9382

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