Lucius E. Burch Papers

Collection

Identifier: EBL-0012

Staff Only

Collection Scope and Content Summary

Personal papers of Lucius Burch, Vanderbilt alumnus, Dean of the Medical School and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. This collection consists primarily of Burch's diaries covering the period 1921-1959, also includes some family correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs. Also included are typescripts and notes on letters of the maternal grandparents of Sarah Polk Cooper Burch and the family letters of the paternal grandfather of Lucius E. Burch. Dates on these letters range from 1818-1897.

Dates

1818 - 1959

Creator

Burch, Lucius E. (Person)

Notes about Access to this Collection

All collections are subject to applicable Vanderbilt University privacy and confidentiality policies. Collection specific restrictions: No Restrictions.

Reproduction Rights

Copyright is retained by History of Medicine Collections, Eskind Biomedical Library, Vanderbilt University or is retained by the authors of specific published items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Historical or Biographical Note

Lucius E. Burch (1874-1959) was a surgeon, professor, dean, and editor. He was a major participant in the reorganization of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, working with Chancellor James Kirkland, Abraham Flexner and G. Canby Robinson.

Dr. Burch was born in 1874 in Nashville. He attended the Webb School in Bell Buckle and was a star football player at Vanderbilt in the 1890's. Receiving his M.D. degree in 1896, Dr. Burch practiced briefly in Bear Spring, Tennessee before studying surgery at St. George's Hospital in London in 1897. Dr. Burch was a professor of gynecology at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine from 1904-1945. He was dean of the Medical School from 1914-1925. After service in France during World War I, he returned to play a key role in the transition between the old medical school and the new one. While supporting the changes proposed by Chancellor Kirkland and Dean-Elect G. Canby Robinson (a new medical school and hospital on the west campus and introduction of a full-time faculty), Dr. Burch upheld the position of the old, local, part-time faculty.

On retiring as dean in 1925, Dr. Burch was appointed chairman of Vanderbilt's department of gynecology and obstetrics, where he served another twenty years. In addition, he continued an active private practice. Dr. Lucius Burch served as president of the Nashville Academy of Medicine and as editor of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In 1929, he was elected president of the Southern Surgical Association.

Extent

2.22 Cubic Feet (6 Hollinger boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Acquisition Information

This collection was transferred from the Tennessee State Libary and Archives May 31, 1990 per a release agreement signed by John H. Thweatt and received by Mary H. Teloh.