Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Holman (Halsted) papers
MS113
No online items
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Medical History Center
Title: Halsted Holman papers
Identifier/Call Number: MS113
Physical Description:
13.17 Linear Feet
12 full-size cartons and 1 archives box;
12 3/4W x 15 3/4L x 10 1/2"H (full-size carton), 5W x 12 1/2L x 10 1/2H" (archives box)
Date (inclusive): 1931-2015
Abstract: The Halsted Holman papers offer insight into the life and work of Dr Halsted Holman, Guggenheim Professor of Medicine, Emeritus,
and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. His papers primarily consist of files
pertaining to his work with the Midpeninsula Health Service, the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, and chronic
disease self-care management initiatives. The papers of Halsted Holman also contain his research files on healthcare reform,
biomedical ethics, the Vietnam War, and peace movements.
Physical Description: The physical and nonchronological order of Halsted Holman's papers was preserved. An intellectual order based on series and
subseries was created to reflect the main subject areas. For instance, the Midpeninsula Health Service Materials contain items
from boxes 1, 2, and 6; boxes and folders are listed in subsequent order, i.e. box 1, 2, and 6; folder 17, 19, 22, 25, etc.
Language of Material:
English
.
Materials in box 13 are temporarily restriced in compliance with The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA).
The papers of Halsted Holman include publications; newspaper and magazine clippings pertaining to Holman's research interests;
correspondence; typescript and handwritten manuscripts and outlines for talks; anonymous patient surveys; self-care materials
for patients; project reports; email and website print-outs; research proposals; fax transmittals; financial reports; grant
applications and reports; memorandums; syllabi; recommendation letters; event invitations; meeting minutes; anti-war and social
justice pamphlets; unclassified US military reports; and Holman's copy of his declassified CIA and Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) dossier. Many of the aforementioned documents contain detailed annotations and marginalia by Holman.
The series titles reflect the main documentary themes contained in Holman's papers. Most of the collection consists of historical
material Holman assembled in his research. Most files involve:
Health care reform
Chronic disease self-care programs
The Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program
The Midpeninsula Health Service
Holman's social and political activism
There is a particular emphasis on the Stanford Peace Movement and Anti-War materials. There are also many newspaper, magazine,
and journal articles and clippings on health care and science with Holman's annotations.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Halsted Holman papers were donated to the Stanford Medical History Center by Halsted Holman.
Halsted Reid Holman, MD, Guggenheim Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, at Stanford Medical School, was born on January 17th,
1925. The son of two influential Stanford physicians, vascular surgeon Emile Frederic Holman and pediatric cardiologist Ann
Peril Purdy, Holman entered Stanford University in 1942. Holman was awarded his M.D. degree from Yale University in 1949.
After having been awarded his M.D. degree from Yale, Holman did a National Research Council Fellowship in Biochemistry at
the Carlsberg Laboratories in Copenhagen, Denmark. While abroad, Holman became involved in student health activism and peace
movements through the International Union of Students (IUS) in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and its affiliate organization, the
Association for Interns and Medical Students (AIMS). McCarthy-era policymakers labeled such international organizations as
pro-Soviet and anti-American and placed Holman on a list of banned persons. When Holman returned to the US to commence an
internship at Yale School of Medicine, the Executive Committee voted to expel Holman. A few months after Holman's expulsion,
he was offered an internship and residency at The Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx, New York. Three years later, in
1955, he went on to work with immunologist Dr. Henry G. Kunkel at The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now The
Rockefeller University), where both Kunkel and Holman provided some of the first evidence of autoimmunity, which helped usher
in a new field of clinical immunology.
When Stanford Medical School moved from San Francisco to Palo Alto in 1959, Dr. Holman became the first chair of medicine
in 1960 at the age of 35. In the late 1960s, Holman was one of the founding members of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Clinical Scholars Training Program, an interdisciplinary program designed to extend medical training beyond the biomedical
field and into disciplines such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, and economics. Holman directed the Clinical Scholars
Program throughout its 26-year existence; the program trained over 900 scholar-clinicians.
During the self-care movement of the 1970s, Holman played a key role in the development of chronic disease self-care programs
and, in 1978, created the Midpeninsula Health Service, an experimental member-led fee-for-service clinic in Palo Alto. In
the 1980s and 1990s, Holman developed patient self-care management programs that became models for other chronic disease self-care
programs in the US.
In addition to Holman's health activism, he was involved in the Stanford anti-war and peace movement during the Vietnam War.
He participated in demonstrations opposing war-related research at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) recruiting on campus as part of the "April Third Movement" sit-ins and protests. In 1971, Holman led a faculty
coalition group supporting the 1971 Stanford Medical Center sit-in for the reinstatement of housekeeping staff member, Sam
Bridges.
The Midpeninsula Health Service series contains extensive and detailed information on the activity and history of the Midpeninsula
Health Service, from its creation in 1974 to its merger with Stanford in 1987 and its affiliation with Stanford Medical Center.
This series contains performance and financial planning data about the operations and characteristics of the Midpeninsula
Health Service in promotional materials, educational self-care booklets, operations assessments, and annual reports; there
are also multiple patient surveys. Many of the items contain extensive handwritten annotations by Holman. This series also
includes a manuscript by Holman titled "The History of Family and Community Medicine at Stanford;" a Stanford Medical Center
memo on Stanford's affiliation with the Midpeninsula Health Service; and typescript drafts by Holman that were used for discussions.
The Community Health and Self-Care Management Programs series contains materials about Dr. Holman's wide-ranging involvement
in chronic disease self-care initiatives at Stanford Medical Center and in the San Francisco Bay Area. The subseries Division
of Family and Community Medicine pertains to the history of the Division of Family and Community Medicine at Stanford and
its closure. The series and subseries contain memos, correspondence, newsletters, handwritten notes, email print-outs, PowerPoint
slide print-outs, patient evaluations, and grant applications.
The Personal Reference Materials series reflects Dr. Holman's interest in various science and health topics. Most of this
series comprises clippings from magazines, newspapers, and journal articles. Many of the documents contain Dr. Holman's annotations
and marginalia. This series is divided into four subseries: rDNA, Science and Health Care, Health Care Reform, and Medical
Education. Of particular prominence is the rDNA subseries, which exhibits the debate that was taking place in the late 1970s
around recombinant DNA research, particularly regarding Stanford biochemist Paul Berg. The Health Care Reform series is further
subdivided into the subseries Medicare, which contains a noteworthy correspondence document between Dr. Holman, who played
a role in the development of Medicare in the United States, and health economist and Medicare architect Rashi Fein. The Medical
Education subseries pertains to Dr. Holman's work with the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and includes materials
related to curriculum development at Stanford Medical School.
The Stanford Peace Movement series includes pamphlets, publications, newspapers, magazines, letters, memos, handwritten notes,
and correspondence pertaining to the "April Third Movement" at Stanford and sit-ins that took place on campus throughout the
1960s and 1970s, of which Holman was the leader of a faculty group that condemned police action at a sit-in at Stanford Medical
Center in 1971 that called for the reinstatement of Stanford Medical Center housekeeping staff member Sam Bridges, and the
granting of tenure to assistant professor of neurosurgery Dr. Jose A. Aguilar. This series also includes a letter sent to
Dr. Holman from Stanford University's Black Student Union (BSU) chairman, Willie L. Newberry, from Santa Clara County Jail
in Milpitas, California, following Newberry's arrest at the hospital sit-in.
The Activism series includes broadsides; clippings from magazines and newspapers; typescript documents; draft proposals; handwritten
notes; and pamphlets that pertain to the Black Panther Movement, economics, poverty, and racial discrimination. This series
includes materials on Holman's involvement with the Bay Area Continuations Committee and its review of Arthur Kinoy's "Mass
Party of the People" paper. The subseries Health Activism specifically concerns activism in the medical field. The subseries
Association of Internes and Medical Students (AIMS) Depicts Dr. Holman's involvement with AIMS in Europe while Holman was
a biochemistry fellow at the Carlsberg Laboratories in Copenhagen, Denmark. This subseries contains newspaper clippings, pamphlets,
handwritten notes, typescript notes, letters, and US government reports. This subseries contains many letters of support to
Holman's parents after various newspapers had published stories reporting Holman's refusal to take a loyalty oath under the
Anti-Communist House Un-American Activities Committee. Also contained in this subseries is a declassified copy of FBI and
CIA dispatch reports on Dr. Holman and his involvement in AIMS.
The Anti-war movement series exhibits Holman's reference materials on nuclear war; the war in Vietnam; and the Richard Nixon
administration. This series includes publications, magazines, newspaper clippings, and handwritten notes.
The Faculty Papers series comprises various materials pertaining to Holman's time as a faculty member at Stanford School of
Medicine. This series is further subdivided into the subseries Chronic Disease Care; Talk Outlines and Notes; Letters, Memos,
and Correspondence; and Unpublished Drafts and Manuscripts. This series mainly contains handwritten and typescript letters,
memos, and correspondence. This series also includes materials regarding the 1999 merger between the University of California
San Francisco (UCSF) and Stanford Health Care.
Processed by Riain Ross-Hager, Feburary 2024.
Materials were rehoused in archival boxes and folders and described at the series level. Publications authored by Holman with
annotations and marginalia were kept, while publications by Holman with no annotations were deaccessioned as these materials
are accessible through various science and medical journals online. Most of Holman's original folder titles were transcribed
onto the new folders. To preserve the organizational logic of Holman's papers, the original folder-level organization was
retained, and a series-based intellectual order was created to facilitate research and discoverability; these series reflect
the main documentary themes of the collection.
In compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a small collection of Holman's personal
health records is restricted.
Property rights are held by the Stanford Medical History Center. Publication or use of collection materials outside the scope
of the public domain and fair use is the sole responsibility of the researcher.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Rheumatologists
Medical education.
Chronic diseases -- Treatment
Community health services
Self-care, Health
Preventive health services for older people
Physician and patient
Health care reform -- United States
Social medicine
Medicare
Anti-war demonstrations
Blacklisting, Labor
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Clinical Scholars Program
Association of Internes and Medical Students