Essex County Medical Society Records; Guide to the

Creator

Smith, James, Jr., 1851-1927.

Dates

1816-1997 and 2005.

Abstract

The records of the Essex County Medical Society date from 1816 to 1997, but consist mainly of documents from 1816 to 1970. One document is dated 2005. The collection totals approximately 3 linear feet. They form Manuscript Collection 42 in the New Jersey Medical History Manuscript Collections. The records are open for research without restrictions under the conditions of the Archives' access policy.

Extent

3 Linear Feet (3 linear ft)

Restrictions on Access

No restrictions on access, under the conditions of the Archives access policy.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Biographical / Historical

The Essex County Medical Society (ECMS) is a district affiliation of the Medical Society of New Jersey (MSNJ), the oldest, continuously meeting state medical society in the United States. On June 27, 1766, fourteen New Jersey doctors founded the MSNJ. However, it was not until 1816 that the Society was formally incorporated. Physicians then established district societies in five counties including Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Somerset, and Essex. The MSNJ appointed five physicians to form the District Medical Society for the County of Essex, which became the Essex County Medical Society (ECMS) in April 1904. The group included Joseph Quimby, Samuel Manning, John D. Williams, David S. Craig, and Philemon Elmer. All regularly licensed medical practitioners of Essex County were issued a public notice to meet on June 4, 1816 at the Moses Roff's Inn. Located on Broad Street, Moses Roff's was Newark's chief hostelry. The group elected John D. Williams as the first President and Joseph Quimbyas Secretary. There were only eleven members when the Society first began, and membership dues were two dollars on admission and fifty cents a year thereafter. At the time, Essex County included Passaic and Union Counties, and about 30 thousand people lived there. The founders of the Essex County Medical Society were mostly immigrants (or their descendants) from Great Britain. Only a few had formal medical training; possibly from a school in the United States, England or Scotland. The two schools nearest to New Jersey were Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania. Not only was training hard to come by, but surgery in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was rather primitive. Surgeons were without anesthesia, only utilized a few useful medicines, and barely understood disease prevention. By 1846, the anesthetic properties of ether were discovered and surgeons performed their work with more deliberation. People began to have elective, in addition to emergency, surgeries.

Following the Civil War (1861-1865), New Jersey led industrial production in the Unites States. A Civil War Army Hospital, located on North Broadway in Newark, offered Essex County physicians an opportunity to help recovering soldiers, largely without compensation. In 1876, the ECMS was the second county society in New Jersey to induct a woman member, Eleanor Haines. The Women's Auxiliary to the ECMS began approximately fifty years later, in 1930, for the wives and female relations of ECMS physicians.

By 1933, the ECMS would meet several times a year. There would be one Annual Meeting (in April,October or May), a series of Regular Meetings called by the Council, Special Meetings called by thePresident, and a Council Meeting prior to each Society meeting. The minutes and actions of Regular and Special Council Meetings are printed in the ECMS Bulletin, beginning in 1931.

Arrangement

This collection is organized into nine series. They are:

Series I: Financial Records Series II: Minutes Series III: Council Actions Series IV: Correspondence Series V: Members Register Series VI: Member Ballots Series VII: Publications Series VIII: Medical Society of New Jersey Series IX: George J. Hill Typescript

Bibliography

Clark, J. Henry. Medical Men of the Essex District 1666-1866. Newark: n.p., 1867. "Eleanor Haines." New Jersey Medicine 87.3 (March 1990): 211. Hill, George J. "Our 180th Year of Service to the Public and the Medical Profession." Essex County Bulletin (Summer 1996): 152-157.

Scope and content

The records of the Essex County Medical Society (ECMS) date from its establishment in 1816 to 1997, but the bulk of the records are from 1816 to 1970. One document is dated 2005. Materials represent all levels of membership, from regular members and councilmen, to delegates. Many of the records focus on member activities such as paying dues, attending council meetings, participating in Society elections, and, of course, regulating the medical practices of Essex County physicians. Time periods best represented are the early 1800s to the early 1900s, and the mid-1930s to the early 1950s. Most sparsely documented are the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The collection consists only of textual files. The majority are typewritten paper records, although many handwritten pages and some printed materials are contained in the collection. Document types include: letters, memos, publications, conference proceedings and reports, minutes from various meetings, original election ballots, financial ledgers kept by the treasurers, a number of publications and bulletins, and various clippings. Of special interest are: 1) two 1896 letters, from New Jersey Senators James Smith, Jr. and William J. Sewell, discussing the work of the ECMS to fight against cruelty to animals, and 2) an unpublished typescript by Dr. George J. Hill titled "Presidents and Annual Meetings of the Essex County Medical Society.".