Travel slides and miscellaneous items donated by Academy Fellow and distinguished ophthalmologist Frederick Cordes.

Frederick Carl Cordes was born June 12, 1892 in San Francisco, California. He graduated from the University of California, A.B. (1915), M.D. (1918). In 1925, he studied ocular pathology with Ernst Fuchs, in Vienna, Austria. Cordes interned at the University of California Hospital, San Francisco (1918-1919) and remained active on the hospital’s staff until his retirement in 1959. He enjoyed a long career with the University of California School of Medicine as an instructor, (1921), assistant clinical professor (1928), associate clinical professor and chairman of the division of ophthalmology (1934), clinical professor and department chair (1936) retiring as clinical professor emeritus (1959). Under his chairmanship, the department of ophthalmology developed into a major teaching, research and treatment center. Cordes’ private practice in San Francisco specialized in ophthalmology (1919-1962). He was a pioneer in cataract surgery and the treatment of glaucoma. His research made valuable contributions particularly in the nature and treatment of congenital and acquired cataracts and his studies in pediatric ophthalmology. Cordes served as civilian consultant in ophthalmology to the Office of the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army (after 1943) and the U.S. Navy (after 1946). Between 1946 and 1953 he was consultant to the State of California Board of Public Health. He received honors from the American Medical Association (Howe Medal, 1960), National Society for the Prevention of Blindness (Leslie Dana Gold Medal), St.Louis Society for the Blind, and the American Ophthalmological Society (Lucien Howe Medal, 1961). The University of California Eye Residents Association was renamed the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society in his honor (1959) and in 1962 he received an honorary LL.D. from that institution. Cordes was a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences (1932), American College of Surgeons, and the American Medical Association, a Francis I. Proctor Foundation trustee (1947-1959), member of the American Board of Ophthalmology (1922-1954, chairman 1949), Pacific Coast Oto-Ophthalmological Society (pres. 1939), and American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology (pres. 1953). Associate Editor of the American Journal of Ophthalmology (1929-1965). Approximately 7,000 color slides of trips throughout the Americas and Europe were given to the California Academy of Sciences by Frederick Cordes. He died in San Francisco on April 4, 1965

1+ box (5.15 cu. ft.)

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