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that summarize his contributions to his medical and civic pursuits, and correspondence with publishers about his unpublished autobiography (not included here).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. Cannon, George Dows, 1902-1986
2. Bond, Horace Mann, 1904-1972
3. King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
4. Randolph, A. Philip (Asa Philip), 1889-1979
5. Wyeth, Andrew, 1917-2009
6. Cannon, George Epps, 1869-1925
7. Hinton, William A. (William Augustus), 1883-1959
8. Motley, Constance Baker, 1921-2005
9. Barnes Foundation
10. NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
11. City-Wide Citizens' Committee on Harlem
12. Lincoln University (Pa.)
13. Harlem Hospital Center (New York, N.Y.)
14. African American physicians
15. Public health -- New York (State) -- New York
16. African Americans -- Medical care
17. African Americans -- Social conditions
18. Race discrimination -- New York (State) -- New York
19. Discrimination in employment -- New York (State) -- New York
20. Hospitals -- Medical staff
21. Hospital patients
22. African American radiologists
23. Tuberculosis -- Patients
24. African Americans in medicine -- New York (State) -- New York
25. African American children -- New York (State) -- New York
26. African Americans -- Education (Higher) -- Pennsylvania
27. African American universities and colleges -- Pennsylvania
28. Harlem (New York, N.Y.)

Call number

1. Sc MG 595

Language

1. English

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.

Connect to:

1. Finding Aid