William Dunn MD Papers, 1946 - 1955

Summary

Creator:
Dunn, William H., 1898-1955
Abstract:
William Dunn was chief of the Out Patient Department at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic of New York Hospital. The collection has no series and needs to be reprocessed.
Extent:
2 boxes .63 linear feet
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The William H. Dunn Papers consist of a diverse assortment of papers spanning the years 1946-1954. Dunn’s professional correspondence consists of letters of recommendation for colleagues and students along with other matters. A grouping of papers prepared for the International Congress on Mental Health which took place in London in August 1948 is included in the collection. Under the stimulus of Dr. Frank Fremont-Smith of the Josiah Macy Foundation, a Preparatory Commission made a study of the Nazi hierarchy, based particularly on material accumulated in the Nuremberg prison, in an effort to discover possible implications for world mental hygiene. Drs. Margaret Mead and William Dunn were members, as were Drs. Richard M. Brickner, John Frosch, and G. M. Gilbert. These papers consist of correspondence among the various planners, and drafts of papers dealing with guilt and authoritarian trends in German culture, aggression, and studies of German prisoners of war in the United States. Dunn served as associate editor of the Bulletin of the American Psychoanalytic Association and resigned in December 1951 due to ill health. Folders pertaining to the Association contain additional recommendations for colleagues and a report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Institutes and Societies of the Committee on Affiliate Societies.

Background data for the Preparatory Commission and summary reports for a Conference on Psychiatric Education held at Cornell University in Ithaca on June 21-27, 1951 are also included. The conference was organized and conducted by the American Psychiatric Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges. A published report of this conference can be found in Psychiatry and Medical Education, American Psychiatric Association, Washington, D.C. 1952. The collection has no series and needs to be reprocessed.

Biographical / historical:

William H. Dunn, M.D. was born on April 13, 1898 in Scottsville, New York. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester in 1923 and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1927. He was appointed Assistant Physician at Bloomingdale Hospital in 1929. He served as Assistant and then Associate Attending Psychiatrist at New York Hospital. Dunn also served as Chief of the Outpatient Department of the Payne Whitney Clinic and taught at Cornell University Medical College.

Dunn was a consultant at the post-World War II crime trials at Nuremberg, Germany. During the war, Dr. Dunn was a lieutenant colonel in the Army Medical Corps, serving in the United States and in the Southwest Pacific, and winning the Legion of Merit. Some of his publications pertain to psychiatric problems in the Armed Forces and to the Nuremberg trial. He died in February 1955 in New York City.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Oskar Diethelm, 1955.

Access and use

Restrictions:

There are no access restrictions on this material.

Terms of access:

Written permission must be obtained from the Oskar Diethelm Library and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Location of this collection:
DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy and the Arts
Weill Cornell Medical College
525 East 68th Street, Box 140
New York, NY 10065, United States
Link to repository site
Contact:
212-746-3728