Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 1.4 lin. ft. (3 archival boxes, 1 print box)

Summary

1. The George D. Cannon Papers consist of personal papers including copies of Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency files on Cannon, 1943-1963. There are research papers about Cannon's father, George E. Cannon, also a physician, and William Augustus Hinton, the first black professor at Harvard University's medical school.
2. Incoming and outgoing correspondence files, 1932-1981, document Cannon's early professional career as he sought to further his studies in the tuberculosis field, his attempts to improve conditions at Harlem Hospital and reduce mortality rates from tuberculosis, as well as a resolution he authored introduced in the New York County Medical Society urging the American Medical Association to admit Southern black physicians to regular membership (1950). In other letters of the 1940's he wrote about his participation in founding the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York (HIP). Also included are letters recommending that Cannon be awarded citations that summarize his contributions to his medical and civic pursuits, and correspondence with publishers about his unpublished autobiography (not included here). In an interview with the City-Wide Citizens' Committee on Harlem, he discussed discrimination of black physicians and tuberculosis patients in New York City hospitals in the 1940's. Cannon's speeches concern tuberculosis patients, Lincoln University and his advocacy of national health insurance (1940's-1950's). Other files include his published writings, 1935-1975, his radiology logs and account books, 1978-1982, and lists of black physicians and dentists in Manhattan. Additionally, there is a speech by Judge Constance Baker Motley entitled "The Continuing American Revolution" (1975).
3. The collection also contains papers relating to Cannon's work with the Barnes Foundation, 1960-1977, the NAACP Legal and Educational Fund, 1940-1982, and the Sub-Committee on Health and Hospitals of the City-Wide Citizens' Committee on Harlem, 1942. Included are correspondence, committee reports, legal papers, printed material, newsletters and news clippings. Among the correspondents are artist Andrew Wyeth; Horace Mann Bond, president of Lincoln University; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Rudolph J. Thomas, executive director of the Harlem Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association of Greater New York, and A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

Subject

1. African Americans > Medical care
2. Hospital patients
3. NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
4. Barnes Foundation
5. African Americans > Social conditions
6. African American physicians
7. Harlem Hospital Center (New York, N.Y.)
8. Race discrimination > New York (State) > New York
9. Bond, Horace Mann, 1904-1972
10. Hinton, William A (William Augustus), 1883-1959
11. African Americans in medicine > New York (State) > New York
12. City-Wide Citizens' Committee on Harlem
13. Discrimination in employment > New York (State) > New York
14. Cannon, George Dows, 1902-1986
15. Wyeth, Andrew, 1917-2009
16. African American children > New York (State) > New York
17. Tuberculosis > Patients
18. Randolph, A. Philip (Asa Philip), 1889-1979
19. Public health > New York (State) > New York
20. Cannon, George Epps, 1869-1925
21. Harlem (New York, N.Y.)
22. King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
23. African American universities and colleges > Pennsylvania
24. Motley, Constance Baker, 1921-2005
25. Hospitals > Medical staff
26. African American radiologists
27. African Americans > Education (Higher) > Pennsylvania
28. Lincoln University (Pa.)

Call number

1. Sc MG 595

Note

1. Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.

Source (note)

1. Lillian M. Cannon

Biography (note)

1. George Dows Cannon was a radiologist in Harlem, New York City (1937-1982). He was the first African-American to be appointed to the staffs of the Hospital for Joint Diseases, the Hospital for the Daughters of Israel, and Triboro Hospital. He served as National Secretary of the Physicians' Forum and was a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, the New York Academy of Medicine and the American Medical Association. In addition to his medical career, Dr. Cannon served on the boards of numerous organizations involved in working for equal rights for blacks in the fields of education and medicine, including the NAACP Legal and Educational Fund, National Urban League, Lincoln University, City-Wide Citizens' Committee on Harlem as well as the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, which contains an outstanding collection of impressionist art.

Indexes/finding aids (note)

1. Preliminary finding aid available.

Author

1. Cannon, George Dows, 1902-1986.

Title

1. George D. Cannon papers, 1932-1982.

Biography

1. George Dows Cannon was a radiologist in Harlem, New York City (1937-1982). He was the first African-American to be appointed to the staffs of the Hospital for Joint Diseases, the Hospital for the Daughters of Israel, and Triboro Hospital. He served as National Secretary of the Physicians' Forum and was a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, the New York Academy of Medicine and the American Medical Association. In addition to his medical career, Dr. Cannon served on the boards of numerous organizations involved in working for equal rights for blacks in the fields of education and medicine, including the NAACP Legal and Educational Fund, National Urban League, Lincoln University, City-Wide Citizens' Committee on Harlem as well as the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, which contains an outstanding collection of impressionist art.

Indexes

1. Preliminary finding aid available.

Connect to:

1. Finding Aid

Research call number

1. Sc MG 595