Virginia Apgar papers, 1880-1975 (bulk 1925-1974)
General International Standard for Archival Description
Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections South Hadley, MA
Finding aid generated in MARC format from database, then encoded using Perl scripts and XSL stylesheet. 2003-05-20
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Virginia Apgar papers
Creation of Virginia Apgar papers
Time of Creation of Virginia Apgar papers
Apgar, Virginia, 1909-1974.
Biographical History for: Virginia Apgar papers
Biographical Note Virginia Apgar was born in Westfield, New Jersey on June 7, 1909 to Charles E. Apgar, a businessman and insurance executive, and Helen May Clarke Apgar. After graduating from high school in Westfield she entered Mount Holyoke College in 1925. She majored in zoology, wrote articles for the student newspaper, participated in campus athletics and dramatics, and played violin in the College orchestra. After receiving a B.A. in 1929 she became one of the first women to study at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She received her M.D. in 1933 and began an internship in surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. After two years of work Apgar became convinced that a woman could not support herself as a surgeon and decided to enter the newly-emerging field of anesthesiology. She trained at the University of Wisconsin and Bellvue Hospital and became a board-certified anesthesiologist in 1937; she began teaching anesthesiology at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center before she had completed her training. She was appointed Director of the Center's Division of Anesthesiology in 1938. When she became a full professor in 1949 she relinquished her other duties and devoted herself to studying the use of anesthesia during childbirth. In 1952 she presented her system for evaluating the health of infants immediately after birth which became known as the Apgar Score. In 1959 Apgar received a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University and joined the staff of the National Foundation (later the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation). She devoted much of the rest of her life to increasing public support for research about the causes, prevention, and treatment of birth defects. In 1972 she wrote "Is My Baby All Right?" with Joan Beck, a book aimed at helping parents understand birth defects. While continuing to work for the National Foundation she also was a lecturer in the Department of Genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and lecturer and clinical professor of pediatrics at Cornell University Medical College in New York City. From 1966-1971 Apgar was an alumna trustee of Mount Holyoke College. She received many honorary degrees and awards during her lifetime, for example, becoming the first woman to receive the Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement in Medicine from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1973. She died in New York City on August 7, 1974 at the age of sixty-five. Posthumous honors for Apgar include a commemorative postage stamp issued in 1994 and induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1995.
Scope and Contents of the Collection The Virginia Apgar Papers consist of diaries, correspondence, course records and training records, Aqualumni records, Director of Anesthesiology records, writings, Apgar Score material, material relating to speaking engagements and meetings attended and to radio and television appearances, a scrapbook, financial records, notebooks, an index to scientific publications, memorabilia, Charles E. Apgar material, biographical information, a sound recording and photographs. This material chiefly concerns Apgar's education and professional life between 1925-1974. Much of the collection relates to her work for the National Foundation (later the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation) from 1959-1974. Material concerning her activities on behalf of that organization consists of diaries, extensive correspondence relating to speaking engagements, meetings attended, and radio and televison appearances, her writings about prenatal care and birth defects, articles about her work, and numerous photographs. Other diaries, correspondence, reports, notebooks, financial records, a scrapbook and photographs concern her education and training at Mount Holyoke College (1925-1929), Columbia University and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (1929-1935), the University of Wisconsin (1936-1937) and Johns Hopkins University (1959), and her work as an anesthesiologist, administrator, and professor at Columbia-Presbyterian (1938-1958) and Johns Hopkins (1972-1973). This material includes documents relating to her association with the Aqualumni, a group of anesthesiologists trained by Dr. Ralph M. Waters at the University of Wisconsin, and to the Apgar Score that she developed for evaluating the health of newborn infants. Other material in the collection consists of financial records containing information about her income and expenses between 1925-1942; several notebooks from the 1940s-circa 1969 that include lists, notes, and more details about her finances; a card index of scientific publications in the library of Dr. K. B. Warren which appears to have prepared circa 1960; diplomas, certificates, two medical bags, and other memorabilia; and a sound recording from a television appearance that she made circa 1960. Her papers also include two documents by her father Charles E. Apgar: a letter that he wrote describing his life as a student at Centenary Collegiate Institute in Hackettstown, New Jersey in 1880 and an article about his family's home in Westfield, New Jersey that was published in February 1906 issue of "The Suburbanite, A Monthly Magazine For Those Who Are and Those Who Ought To Be Interested In Suburban Homes." Material from this collection is available in an online digital format.
Hospitals - New York - Medical staff - New York (State)
lcsh
College students - Massachusetts.
College students - New Jersey.
Women college students - Massachusetts.
Interns (Medicine) - New York (State) - New York.
Apgar score.
Anesthesiologists - United States.
Women anesthesiologists - United States.
Physicians - United States.
Women physicians - United States.
Infants (Newborn) - Medical care.
Abnormalities, Human.
Prenatal care.
Women - United States - Economic conditions.
Suburban homes - New Jersey - Westfield.
Student activities - Massachusetts - South Hadley.
Student activities - New Jersey - Hackettstown.
Mount Holyoke College - Student life - 1925-1929.
lcnaf
Waters, Ralph M. (Ralph Milton), 1883-1979.
Warren, K. B. Library Catalogs.
Apgar, Charles E. (Charles Emory), 1865-1950.
Aqualumni (Organization).
National Foundation.
Mount Holyoke College - Students.
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons - Students.
University of Wisconsin - Students.
Johns Hopkins University - Students.
Johns Hopkins University - Faculty.
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center - Employees.
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center - Faculty.
Centenary Collegiate Institute (Hackettstown, N.J.) - Students.
Apgar family - Homes and haunts.
aat
series
Personal diary 1937-1942
Personal diary 1958
Personal diary 1959
Personal diary 1961-1964
Personal diary 1965
Professional diary 1959
Professional diary 1960
Professional diary 1961
Professional diary 1962
Professional diary 1963
Professional diary 1964
Professional diary 1965
Professional diary 1966
Professional diary 1967
Professional diary 1968
Professional diary 1969-1973
Travel diary June 1949
Travel diary October-November 1949
Travel diary March-July 1950
Travel diary September-October 1951
Travel diary April-May 1953
Travel diary August-September 1963
Travel diary June 1964
Travel diary July 1965
Travel diary 1966
Travel diary 1968-1973
Travel diary 1974
Correspondence 1925-1974
Course records/Training records 1926-1973
Examinations, Mount Holyoke College 1926, 1928-1929
Laboratory drawings, probably Mount Holyoke College circa 1926-circa 1929
Laboratory drawings, Mount Holyoke College 1927
Notebook: Operations, Columbia University 1929
Notebook: House Surgeon Floor K, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center1935
Reports on operations, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center May-July1935
Reports on operations, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center
August 1935
September-October 1935
May-August 1935 (photocopies; patients names edited out
Sept.-Oct. 1935 (photocopies; patients names edited out
Notebook I, compiled during travels October 1949
Notebook II, compiled during travels October 1949
Notebook III, compiled during travels October 1949
Notebook IV, compiled during travels October 1949
Notebook, Statistics I circa 1954-1956
Notebook, [Statistics] II circa 1954-1956
Notebook, Johns Hopkins University 1958
Notebook, Johns Hopkins University [1958]
Notebook, Johns Hopkins University 1958-1959
Notebook, Johns Hopkins University 1959
Notebook, Johns Hopkins University [1959]
Notebook, National Methodist Convocation on Medicine and
Technology April 1967
Notebook, Johns Hopkins University 1972
Notebook, Johns Hopkins University 1972-1973
Notebook, Johns Hopkins University 1973
Aqualumni Records 1938-1948
Constitution 1942
Correspondence 1938-1948
List of members circa 1939, 1948
Minutes of meetings 1945-1947
Programs 1946-1948
Newsletters 1947-1948
Paper by W. Allen Conroy presented at Aqualumni meeting 1948
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center Division of Anesthesia Reports 1939-1946, 1948
Writings 1941-1975
Apgar Score Material 1959-1973
Correspondence 1960
Correspondence February-August 1961
Correspondence September-December 1961
Correspondence 1962
Correspondence 1963
Correspondence 1964
Correspondence 1965
Correspondence 1966
Correspondence 1967
Correspondence 1968
Correspondence 1969
Correspondence 1970
Correspondence 1971
Correspondence 1972
Correspondence 1973-1974
Articles 1959-1963
Articles 1964-1965
Articles 1966-1969
Dissertation: Indice de Apgar 1966
Articles 1970
Articles 1972-1973
Speaking Engagements/Meetings Attended 1959-1974
Radio/Television Appearances 1963-1974
Phil Donahue Show 1973
Scrapbook 1925-1929
Financial Records 1925-1942
Account book 1925-1942
Receipt and checks 1936-1941
Notebooks 1949, 1957-1958, circa 1969
Index to Publications circa 1960
Index to publications (by others): Author index circa 1960
Index to publications (by others): Title index circa 1960
Memorabilia circa 1918-1974
Report card; yearbook circa 1918-1919, 1925
Diplomas, certificates, citations, and awards 1925-1959
Diplomas, certificates, citations, and awards 1960-1966
Diplomas, certificates, citations, and awards 1967-1974
Camp Hanoum staff lists 1926, 1927
Medical examination results 1931
Greeting cards circa 1930s
Invitations and announcements 1953, 1956, 1965, 1968
Programs 1959, 1969, 1973
Passports and vaccination certificates 1964, 1965
Memorial services material 1974
Medical memorabilia circa 1930s-1960s
Plaques circa 1967-1973