Oswald T. Avery biographical file

Collection

Identifier: EBL-0210

Staff Only

Abstract

Many photographs, including photos of important medals won by Dr. Avery; register for Oswald Avery Papers which are held by the Tennessee State Library and Archives; obituaries; memorial tributes; CV; professional articles; correspondence with his brother,Roy Avery; unpublished article about Dr. Avery authored by Robert Collins, MD.

Dates

1877 - 1955

Notes about Access to this Collection

All collections are subject to applicable VUMC privacy and confidentiality policies.

Reproduction Rights

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Historical or Biographical Note

Oswald T. Avery was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1877. His father was a Baptist minister, who was called to be the pastor of the Mariner's Temple in New York City in 1887. Oswald and his two brothers grew up in New York City and attended Colgate Academy in up-state New York. Oswald received an A.B. from Colgate University in 1900 and completed his medical training at Columbia University in 1904. He practiced medicine for three years and then took a position as a researcher at the Hoagland Laboratory in Brooklyn. In 1913 he joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and spent his entire career there, retiring in 1943. He was the foremost researcher on pneumonia, one of the founders of the science of immunochemistry, and discoverer of the transforming nature of DNA. Dr. Avery received many major awards during his lifetime, the Paul Ehrlich Medal, Copley Medal, Pasteur Medal, Lasker Award, and the Kober Medal. During his retirement Oswald Avery lived in Nashville and was associated with Vanderbilt University Medical School.