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Bailey (Percival) collection of papers and photographs
Biomed.0339
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Percival Bailey Personal Collection of Papers and Photographs
Identifier/Call Number: Biomed.0339
Physical Description:
3 Linear Feet
(2 cartons)
Date (inclusive): 1902-1992
Abstract: Dr. Percival Bailey was an important contributor to many fields of the basic and clinical neurosciences, and a distinguished
teacher and author. This is a collection of papers and photographs from Dr. Bailey's home files. Included are documents about
his personal life and family, mementos of many, but not nearly all of the many honors and awards that came to him, manuscripts
of charming autobiographical essays and his thoughts about psychiatry and psychiatrists. Many aspects of his professional
life and his remarkable mentoring of an outstanding group of mid-20th century neurosurgeons emerge from the papers. The photographic
record is especially rich in documenting his students and colleagues from around the world.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], Percival Bailey Personal Collection of Papers and Photographs (Collection 339). Louise M. Darling
Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9970515913606533
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processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
Processed by UCLA Biomedical Library staff.
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The collection was a 1994 gift from Irene Bailey Freyer to UCLA.
Dr. Percival Bailey was a renowned and much-honored scientist, clinician, teacher and administrator, who made major contributions
in neuropathology, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurosurgery and psychiatry. He was born May 9, 1892 in a small town in
the southern tip of Illinois, an area know as Little Egypt. An intelligent and energetic student, determined to escape his
hard-scrabble background through education, he worked his way from a one-room elementary school to Southern Illinois State
Normal College, and from there to a Ph.D. at the University University of Chicago and a simultaneous M.D. at Northwestern
University. Outstanding teachers, especially in anatomy and neurology, aroused his special interest in the nervous system.
After his internship, in 1919 Bailey was accepted to join Harvey Cushing's neurological surgery team at Harvard. This valuable
and rewarding, but also difficult, association between the two men continued in an on-and-off fashion until 1928. Bailey spent
a year in Boston, then returned to Chicago for a year with the neuropathologist George Boris Hassin, back to Boston, then
a year of study with Pierre Marie in Paris in 1921/1922, and back to Boston again. In 1925, now a married man, Bailey returned
to Paris and worked with the psychiatrist Henri Claude for a year. Then back to Boston and Cushing for the last time. In 1928
Bailey became the head of the Department of Neurological Surgery of the newly established University of Chicago School of
Medicine.
Dr. Bailey remained as Professor of Surgery and Professor of Neurology at the University of Chicago until 1939. Then he joined
the University of Illinois as Professor of Neurology and Neurological Surgery until his retirement in 1968. Although his scientific
and teaching activities continued, around 1950 diminished eyesight forced a cessation of his surgical and histological work.
This provided time to shift some of his attention more to psychiatric study of the nervous system, which had always attracted
him, and from 1951 until his retirement in 1967, Dr. Bailey served as Director of the Illinois State Psychopathic Institute
and Research and Educational Consultant to the Illinois Department of Public Welfare.
Dr. Bailey died August 11. 1973. This Renaissance Man, who spoke French and German fluently, read widely in philosophy, history,
art, and wrote charming essays, was widely beloved and honored. More than 200 neuroscientists and surgeons from around the
world, most his former students and colleagues, personally joined in his 60th birthday celebration in Chicago. He was a recipient
of several honorary doctorates, including Docteur honoris causa de l'Université de Paris, was named Chevalier de la Légion
d'Honeur de France and a chosen a member of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. "A Biographical Memoir"
with bibliography by Bailey's pupil, colleague and friend Dr. Paul C. Bucy, published by the National Academy of Sciences,
1989, provides a full account of Dr. Bailey's life and accomplishments.
This collection, preserved and possibly edited by Yevnigé Bashian Bailey (Mrs. Percival Bailey), provides a enlightening picture
of Dr. Bailey as human being, thinker, doer, teacher. Autobiographic and biographic accounts elucidate his life and musings,
his interactions with mentors and mentees, his travels; and these accounts are enriched by an extensive photographic record.
Not to be found, however, except by indirection, are the records of his scientific and clinical life, his over 260 journal
articles, chapters, and books. The collection does include drafts of the chapters of his autobiographical volume "Up from
Little Egypt", and drafts of his thoughts about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis.
The collection is organized into the following series:
- Series 1. Personal Papers, 1912-1978. 27 folders
- Series 2. Honors and Awards, 1949-1983. 12 folders
- Series 3. Professional and Personal Writings, 1935-1972. 29 folders
- Series 4. Professional Life, 1949-1992. 18 folders
- Series 5. General Correspondence, 1946-1973. 3 folders
- Series 8. Photographs, 1902-1973. 23 folders
University of Illinois at Chicago. Health Sciences Library Special Collections: "Unpublished writings of Percival Bailey,
1945-1965". WZ 100 B155u 1945
University of Illinois at Chicago. Health Sciences Library Special Collections: "Percival Bailey Collection", more than 600
rare and important volumes donated by Percival Bailey
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Psychiatry -- Archival resources
Neurosurgery -- United States -- Manuscripts
Neuroscientists -- Archival resources
Bailey, Percival