Guide to the Henry T. Bahnson Papers, 1943-2002 UA.90.F82

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Biography

Scope and Content Notes

Administrative Information

Controlled Access Headings

Previous Citation

Collection Inventory

Series I. Subject Files

Series II. Medical

Series III. Illustrations

Series IV. Photos

Summary Information

Repository

ULS Archives & Special Collections

Title

Henry T. Bahnson Papers

Creator

Bahnson, Henry T., 1920-

Collection Number

UA.90.F82

Date

1943-2002

Extent

9.75 linear feet (11 boxes)

Abstract

Henry Theodore Bahnson was the longest serving chairman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (1963-1987) and a world renowned transplant surgeon. The majority of the collection is made up of correspondence between Dr. Bahnson and his professional colleagues. In addition, the collection contains materials outlining Bahnson's professional and personal achievements, an array of medical slides, and several VHS tapes of surgical procedures.

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Biography

Henry Theodore Bahnson was the longest serving chairman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (1963-1987) and a world renowned transplant surgeon. Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1920, Dr. Bahnson graduated from Davidson College in 1941. He then traveled to Boston to complete his graduate work at the Harvard University Medical School. After graduation in 1944, Bahnson moved with his wife, Louise Porter, to Baltimore Maryland, where he began an internship in surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. While at Johns Hopkins, Bahnson trained with renowned surgeon Dr. Alfred Blalock, one of the pioneers in the field of cardiac surgery. Bahnson spent the early part of his career involved in clinical investigation and introduction of new techniques within vascular and cardiac surgery. Bahnson remained at Johns Hopkins until 1963, eventually achieving the rank of professor within the University.

In 1963 Bahnson accepted the George V. Foster Chairmanship of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. In addition to his personal feats in cardiovascular transplantation – such as performing the first heart transplant in Pennsylvania in 1968 – Bahnson actively recruited leaders within the field of medicine, helping to raise both the University’s Medical School and the University’s Medical Center to international prominence. Dr. Bahnson is credited with recruiting Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, known by many as the "Father of Transplantation."

While at the University of Pittsburgh, Bahnson served on the surgical staff of UPMC Presbyterian (formerly Presbyterian-University Hospital), Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh VA Healthcare System. He was president of numerous professional groups during his career: the Society of University Surgeons (1965), the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (1976-1977), the American College of Surgeons (1983-1984), the American Surgical Association (1987-1988) and the Johns Hopkins Medical and Surgical Association (1989-1990). He was also a member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the International Society for Heart Transplantation, and the Transplant Recipient International Organization.

Dr. Bahnson and his wife were the parents of five children. Dr. Bahnson died in his Pittsburgh home in April, 2003.

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Scope and Content Notes

The collection is organized alphabetically by subject, in keeping with Bahnson’s original organizational scheme. The majority of the collection is made up of correspondence between Bahnson and his professional colleagues, including, but not limited to, Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, Dr. Mark Ravitch, and Dr. Alfred Blalock. The largest single component of the collection is made up of materials relating to Dr. Thomas Starzl. This series includes correspondence between Bahnson and Starzl, correspondence between Bahnson and colleagues about Starzl, and correspondence between Starzl and Dr. Alfred Blalock.

In addition to correspondence, the collection contains materials outlining Bahnson's professional and personal achievements. These include papers relating to the first annual conference about FK-506 (an immunosuppressive drug used to treat transplant patients), a conference for which Dr. Bahnson was personally involved in organizing; and records of his involvement with various professional organizations. The collection contains Bahnson’s original research for a paper titled "Roles of the Kidneys in the Resistance of Rats to Hemmorhage," as well as copies of speeches and addresses he gave throughout his professional career. Besides the materials relating to his scientific accomplishments, the collection contains extensive information on Bahnson’s musical achievements, such as two harmonicas he designed and patented after conducting studies of the physical reactions of the body while playing the harmonica.

Bahnson worked with physicians and professors from Korea and the USSR, and he worked especially closely with physicians from Vietnam, many of whom he met during his work with medical residents in Saigon in the 1970s. The collection contains correspondence relating to sponsorship, employment opportunities, and funding for these associates.

Finally, the collection includes an extensive array of medical slides assembled by Bahnson over the years, and a series of hand-drawn medical illustrations used in several journal articles, and five VHS tapes which were used as animal lab testing instructional videos. The medical slides include a detailed index, which has been organized by subject headings. A complete alphabetic list of subject headings is included with the numbered index in Box 5. The majority of the medical illustrations were drawn by Leon Schlossberg, a charter member of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI), and the recipient of the AMI’s lifetime achievement award in 1990.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

ULS Archives & Special Collections, August 2006

Revision Description

 Revised by Marianne Kasica. April 2011

Access Restrictions

Several files contain private legal, medical or financial information and are subject to various restrictions. Restricted files are identified in the contents list and are contained in Boxes 1-4, 7 and 8. For questions about access conditions, contact the University Archivist. (Box 2 ff 30, 33, 35)

Copyright

The University of Pittsburgh holds the property rights to the material in this collection, but the copyright may still be held by the original creator/author. Researchers are therefore advised to follow the regulations set forth in the U.S. Copyright Code when publishing, quoting, or reproducing material from this collection without the consent of the creator/author or that go beyond what is allowed by fair use.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Alfred Blalock Bahnson, son of Henry T. Bahnson, in April 2003.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Jennifer Cole and Christina Reed in March 2005 and Charles Stanford in 2006.

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Controlled Access Headings

Corporate Name(s)

• American College of Surgeons.
• American Surgical Association.
• Central Surgical Association.
• Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
• University of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine.

Genre(s)

• Administrative reports
• Business correspondence
• Color slides
• Lectures
• Medical illustrations
• Personal correspondence
• Speeches

Personal Name(s)

• Bahnson, Henry T., 1920-
• Blalock, Alfred, 1899-1964
• Ravitch, Mark M., 1910-
• Schlossberg, Leon
• Simmons, Richard L., 1934-
• Starzl, Thomas E. (Thomas Earl), 1926-2017

Subject(s)

• Academic medical centers -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
• Cardiologists -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
• Faculty papers
• Harmonica
• Health and medicine
• Heart -- Surgery -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
• Medical colleges -- Faculty
• Medical students, Foreign -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
• Medicine -- Study and teaching -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
• Physicians -- China
• Physicians -- Korea
• Physicians -- Soviet Union
• Physicians -- Vietnam
• Residents (Medicine) -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
• Surgeons -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
• Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc. -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
• University of Pittsburgh
• Vietnamese students -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh

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Previous Citation

Henry T. Bahnson Papers, 1943-2002, UA.90.F82, University Archives, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh

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Collection Inventory