Arnold Gesell Papers

45 Pages·2017·0.17 MB·English

by  Gesell, Arnold, 1880-1961

Arnold Gesell Papers
A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
2014
Revised 2016 August
Contact information:
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Additional search options available at:
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms010296
LC Online Catalog record:
http://lccn.loc.gov/mm79022673
Prepared by David Gilham, William Gralka, Joseph Sullivan, and David Mathisen
Revised and expanded by Lia Apodaca, Patrick Kerwin, and Kimberly Owens
Collection Summary
Title: Arnold Gesell Papers
Span Dates: 1870-1971
Bulk Dates: (bulk 1910-1950)
ID No.: MSS22673
Creator: Gesell, Arnold, 1880-1961
Extent: 90,000 items ; 258 containers plus 9 oversize ; 114 linear feet
Language: Collection material in English, with some German
Location: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary: Psychologist and educator. Correspondence, memoranda, reports, published and unpublished writings,
addresses, lectures, and film scripts, clinical and medical books, personnel records, contracts, biographical and genealogical
material, abstracts, photographs, research data, and other papers pertaining chiefly to Gesell's work as director of the Yale
Clinic of Child Development, his studies of the mental and physical development of infants and children, and his role in the
debate on the developmental influences of environment and heredity.
Selected Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are
grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.
People
Amatruda, Catherine Strunk, 1903-
Ames, Louise Bates.
Angell, James Rowland, 1869-1949--Correspondence.
Angier, Roswell Parker, 1874-1946--Correspondence.
Buhler, Charlotte Malachowski, 1893-1974--Correspondence.
Bullis, Glenna E.--Correspondence.
Carmichael, Leonard, 1898-1973--Correspondence.
Castner, Burton Menaugh, 1898-
Gesell, Arnold, 1880-1961.
Gesell, Beatrice Chandler, 1878-1965--Correspondence.
Gibbs, J. Willard (Josiah Willard), 1839-1903.
Goddard, Henry Herbert, 1866-1957--Correspondence.
Hall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley), 1844-1924--Correspondence.
Ilg, Frances L. (Frances Lillian), 1902-1981.
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865--Childhood and youth.
Miles, Walter R. (Walter Richard), 1885-1978--Correspondence.
Powers, Grover Francis, 1887-1968--Correspondence.
Swift, Edgar James, 1860-1932--Correspondence.
Terman, Lewis M. (Lewis Madison), 1877-1956--Correspondence.
Thompson, Helen, 1897-
Todd, T. Wingate (Thomas Wingate), 1885-1938--Correspondence.
Turner, Frederick Jackson, 1861-1932--Correspondence.
Yerkes, Robert M. (Robert Mearns), 1876-1956--Correspondence.
Organizations
Connecticut. Commission on Child Welfare.
Gesell Institute of Child Development.
Yale University. Clinic of Child Development.
Subjects
Child development.
Clinical child psychology.
German Americans--Cultural assimilation.
Arnold Gesell Papers 2
Mental health facilities--Connecticut--New Haven.
Motion pictures in education.
Nature and nurture.
Scientific apparatus and instruments.
Places
Germany--Emigration and immigration.
United States--Emigration and immigration.
Occupations
Educators.
Psychologists.
Administrative Information
Provenance
The papers of Arnold Gesell, psychologist and educator, were given to the Library of Congress in 1964 by his son and
daughter, Gerhard A. Gesell and Katherine Gesell Walden. Material received in 1964 was given by Theodore Beuhler.
Additional gifts from Gerhard A. Gesell were received in 1975, 1978, 1983, 1984, and 1986.
Processing History
The papers of Arnold Gesell were arranged and described in 1965. Additions were made in 1968 and 1986. The finding aid
was revised in 2008 and again in 2014.
Additional Guides
A brief note on the Gesell Papers appeared in the Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, vol. 22, No. 4 (Oct. 1965),
p. 329.
Copyright Status
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Arnold Gesell in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of
the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
Access and Restrictions
Restrictions apply governing the use, photoduplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult a reference
librarian in the Manuscript Division for information concerning these restrictions.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Arnold Gesell
Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Biographical Note
Date Event
1880, June 21 Born Alma, Wisc.
1893-1896 Attended Alma High School, Alma, Wisc.
1896-1899 Attended Stevens Point Normal School, Stevens Point, Wisc.
1899-1901 Taught at Stevens Point High School, Stevens Point, Wisc.
Arnold Gesell Papers 3
1901-1903 Attended University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisc.; B.Ph. degree
1903-1904 Principal, Chippewa Falls High School, Chippewa Falls, Wisc.
1904-1906 Attended Clark University, Worcester, Mass.
1908-1910 Professor of psychology, Los Angeles State Normal School, Los Angeles, Calif.
1909 Married Beatrice Chandler
1915 M.D., Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
Appointed Professor of Child Hygiene, Yale Medical School, New Haven, Conn.
1911-1948 Founder and director of Yale Juvenile-Psycho Clinic, later the Yale Clinic of Child Development,
New Haven, Conn.
1915-1919 School psychologist, Connecticut State Board of Education
1919-1921 Member, Connecticut Commission on Child Welfare
1922-1936 Director, American Psychological Association
1924 Gesell's first film, The Mental Growth of the Pre-School Child, made by Pathé
1925 Published Mental Growth of the Pre-School Child. New York: Macmillan
1928-1930 Established Photographic Research and Film Library, Yale Clinic of Child Development, New
Haven, Conn.
1928-1940 Director, American Child Health Association
1928-1948 Attending pediatrician, New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn.
1930 Became a member of Board of Permanent Officers, Yale University School of Medicine, New
Haven, Conn.
Initiated program to produce Yale Films of Child Development
1932-1948 Chairman, Department of Child Development, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
1943 Published Infant and Child in the Culture of Today. New York, London: Harper and Bros.
1946 Published The Child from Five to Ten. New York, London: Harper and Bros.
1948 Retired as professor of child hygiene and director, Yale Clinic of Child Development, New Haven,
Conn.
1948-1950 Research associate, Child Vision Research, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.
1948-1952 Research associate, Harvard Pediatric Study
1950-1958 Research consultant, Gesell Institute of Child Development, New Haven, Conn.
Arnold Gesell Papers 4
1952 President, American Academy of Cerebral Palsy
1956 Published Youth: The Years from Ten to Sixteen. New York: Harper
1961, May 29 Died, New Haven, Conn.
Scope and Content Note
The papers of Arnold Lucius Gesell (1880-1961) span the years 1870-1971, with the bulk of the material concentrated in
the period 1910-1950. The collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, reports, published and unpublished writings,
addresses, lectures, and film scripts, clinical and medical books, personnel records, contracts, biographical and genealogical
material, abstracts, photographs, research data, and other papers pertaining chiefly to Gesell's work as director of the Yale
Clinic of Child Development, his studies of the mental and physical development of infants and children, and his role in the
debate on the developmental influences of environment and heredity. The Gesell Papers are organized in fifteen series:
Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, Subject File, Collected Papers File, Speech and Article File, Book File,
Book Contribution File, Book Review File, Monograph File, Film Script File, Miscellany, Scrapbooks, Addition, Closed,
and Oversize.
Family papers and correspondence account for material dated prior to Gesell's birth in Alma, Wisconsin, and comprise the
bulk of the papers dated between 1880 and 1900. Although these papers contain documentation of subjects other than those
relating to Arnold Gesell, they serve primarily as a source of biographical data relating to Gesell's family life, his childhood
and adolescence, student days at Alma High School, 1893-1896, and Stevens Point Normal School, 1896-1899, and his
work as a teacher at the Stevens Point High School, 1899-1901. Further references to Gesell's life prior to 1900 may be
found in the letters of Margaret Ashmure, M. M. Beddall, Lucius Miley, Laurence Pease, and Charles Sylvester.
Information relating specifically to Gesell's University of Wisconsin days may be found in letters of James Livingston,
Adolph Meyer, Michael O'Shea, Laurence Pease, Theron Pray, William Ruediger, Charles Sylvester, and Frederick Jackson
Turner. References to his student days at Clark University are included in letters of William Burnham, Granville Stanley
Hall, James Livingston, Tadasu Misawa, Edgar Swift, and Lewis Madison Terman. References to his work at the Los
Angeles State Normal School occur in the letters of his wife, Beatrice Chandler Gesell.
From 1911 to 1948, Gesell was director of the Yale Clinic of Child Development, where he conducted studies of the
physical growth and mental development of infants and children. This phase of Gesell's career is the most thoroughly and
extensively documented. References to his work at Yale may be found in the correspondence, writings, and subject files.
Particularly pertinent materials are among the letters of James Rowland Angell, Roswell Parker Angier, Charlotte
Malachowski Buhler, Glenna E. Bullis, Leonard Carmichael, Henry Herbert Goddard, Walter R. Miles, Grover Francis
Powers, Lewis Madison Terman, T. Wingate Todd, and Robert Mearns Yerkes. Other material relating to his work at Yale
is in Subject File folders labeled Catherine Strunk Amatruda, Louise Bates Ames, Burton Menaugh Castner, Connecticut
Child Welfare Commission, Connecticut Child Welfare Survey, Growth, Frances Lillian Ilg, Helen Thompson, Yale Clinic,
and Yale University. References in the Speech and Article File relate to Gesell's theoretical positions and his emergence,
while director of the Yale Clinic of Child Development, as a spokesman for the hereditarian theory that the child grows as
his germ plasm directs.
Other material in the collection concerns Gesell's retirement from Yale in 1950 and to his association as a research
consultant from 1950 to 1958 with the institute that bore his name, the Gesell Institute of Child Development, and material
relating to German immigration and assimilation, circa 1870-1910, the character of J. Willard Gibbs, the childhood
development of Abraham Lincoln, and to the use of motion picture films as educational and scientific research tools.
The Addition series includes family and general correspondence, card files, school papers, speeches and articles, a
notebook, photographs, drawings, financial papers, legal papers, and printed matter.
Oversize consists of charts, graphs, illustrations, certificates, diplomas, printed matter and other material.
Arnold Gesell Papers 5
Arrangement of the Papers
The collection is arranged in fourteen series:
• Family Correspondence, 1870-1960
• General Correspondence, 1884-1959
• Subject File, 1910-1959
• Collected Papers File, 1898-1953
• Speech and Article File, 1898-1954
• Book File, 1912-1958
• Book Contribution File, 1925-1954
• Book Review File, 1920-1948
• Monograph File, 1926-1932
• Film Script File, 1920-1952
• Miscellany, 1889-1961
• Scrapbooks, circa 1913-1948
• Addition, 1898-1971
• Closed, 1913-1955
• Oversize
Arnold Gesell Papers 6
Description of Series
Container Series
BOX 1-16 Family Correspondence, 1870-1960
Abstracts, correspondence, charts, clippings, financial records, medical and clinical records,
memoranda, pamphlets, press releases, personnel records, printed matter, reports,
schedules, tabulations, and test materials.
Arranged alphabetically by name of individual or subject and therein chronologically.
BOX 17-44 General Correspondence, 1884-1959
Letters sent and received.
Arranged alphabetically by name of organization or correspondent and therein chronologically.
BOX 45-134 Subject File, 1910-1959
Abstracts, correspondence, charts, clippings, financial records, medical and clinical records,
memoranda, pamphlets, press releases, personnel records, printed matter, reports,
schedules, tabulations, and test materials.
Arranged alphabetically by name of individual or subject and therein chronologically.
BOX 135-140 Collected Papers File, 1898-1953
Bound volumes containing reprints, printed copies, and a few typescripts of addresses,
announcements, articles, book contributions, book reviews, broadcasts, bulletins, manuals,
orations, pamphlets, papers, reports, and speeches.
Arranged chronologically.
BOX 141-168 Speech and Article File, 1898-1954
Handwritten and typewritten drafts and printed and near-print copies of speeches and articles.
Arranged chronologically and therein alphabetically by title.
BOX 169-204 Book File, 1912-1958
Drafts and proofs of Gesell's major published works and related material. Included in the
related material is correspondence, financial and legal records, illustrations, memoranda,
notes, photographs, prints, reviews, royalty statements, and source material.
Arranged in a drafts and proofs file and related material file and therein alphabetically by title.
BOX 205-209 Book Contribution File, 1925-1954
Chapters and articles written by Gesell for inclusion in texts, handbooks, and other
publications.
Arranged alphabetically by title of contribution.
BOX 210 Book Review File, 1920-1948
Handwritten and typewritten drafts and printed and typewritten copies of reviews.
Arranged alphabetically by title of book reviewed.
BOX 211 Monograph File, 1926-1932
Bound volumes of Yale Clinic of Child Development monographs.
Arranged chronologically.
BOX 212-226 Film Script File, 1920-1952
Handwritten and typewritten drafts and printed and typewritten copies of film scripts.
Arnold Gesell Papers 7
Arranged alphabetically by title, with related material arranged alphabetically by subject.
BOX 227-252 Miscellany, 1889-1961
Appointment books, biographical material, financial papers, genealogical records, notes,
notebooks, personal records, photographs, illustrations, and miscellaneous material.
Arranged alphabetically by subject.
BOX 253 Scrapbooks, circa 1913-1948
Scrapbooks of magazine and newspaper clippings.
Arranged chronologically by earliest date of each volume.
BOX 254-256 Addition, 1898-1971
Family and general correspondence, card files, school papers, speeches and articles, a
notebook, photographs, drawings, financial papers, legal papers, and printed matter.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material.
BOX X257-X258 Closed, 1913-1955
Patient records removed from the collection because of patient confidentiality.
Arranged and described according to the series, folder, and container from which the items
were removed.
BOX OV 1-OV 9 Oversize
Oversize certificates, charts, diplomas, graphs, illustrations, photographs, and schedules.
Arranged alphabetically.
Arnold Gesell Papers 8
Container List
Container Contents
BOX 1-16 Family Correspondence, 1870-1960
Abstracts, correspondence, charts, clippings, financial records, medical and clinical records,
memoranda, pamphlets, press releases, personnel records, printed matter, reports,
schedules, tabulations, and test materials.
Arranged alphabetically by name of individual or subject and therein chronologically.
BOX 1 Gesell, Arnold
1889-1919
(13 folders)
BOX 2 1920-1943
(9 folders)
BOX 3 1944-1955, undated
(7 folders)
BOX 4 Gesell, Beatrice Chandler, 1909-1955, undated
(6 folders)
BOX 5 Gesell, Bertha
1894-1907
(6 folders)
BOX 6 1908-1960, undated
(12 folders)
BOX 7 Gesell, Christine, 1894-1931, undated
(9 folders)
Gesell, Gerhard (born 1846) (father)
1890-1905, undated
(5 folders)
BOX 8 1894-1917, undated
(10 folders)
BOX 9 Gesell, Gerhard A. (1910-1993) (son), and Marion (“Peggy”), 1915-1959, undated
(16 folders)
BOX 10 Gesell, Katherine
1920-1959
(9 folders)
BOX 11 Undated
(5 folders)
BOX 12 (4 folders)
BOX 13 Gesell, Patricia, 1948-1955, undated
Gesell, Peter, 1940-1951, undated
Gesell, Robert, 1894-1948, undated
(8 folders)
BOX 14 Gesell, Wilma and Matthew Derge, 1894-1956, undated
(8 folders)
BOX 15 Walden, Anne, 1947-1960, undated
Walden, Joe, 1935-1960, undated
Arnold Gesell Papers 9
Family Correspondence, 1870-1960
Container Contents
Walden, Rex, 1956-1959, undated
Walden, Susan, 1943-1958, undated
Other Gesells and relatives (including non-relatives with Gesell name)
Anne, 1947
"Banny," 1912, undated
Mrs. Carl, 1949
"Casa," 1936
"Cealy," undated
Charles A., 1906-1908
Charles B., 1907
Christina, 1929
E., 1940
E. L., 1906
Easter Gesell Musson, 1932
Edward H., 1941
Mrs. Edward, 1940
Egbert, 1936
Elfriede, 1947
Emma Gesell Glass, 1940
Greta, 1950
Harold, 1943
Henrietta Gesell Smith, 1925-1958
Henriette Gesell, 1930
Howard, 1945
J. L., 1936
Lester, 1907, 1931
Marcell, 1949
Margaret, 1948, 1957
Maria, 1957
Richard, 1939
Rivka, 1954
Robert, 1958
Walter, 1941
William, 1926-1945
Miscellany
Letters in German, 1870-1909, undated
(4 folders)
BOX 16 Miscellaneous and unidentified letters
(8 folders)
BOX 17-44 General Correspondence, 1884-1959
Letters sent and received.
Arranged alphabetically by name of organization or correspondent and therein chronologically.
BOX 17 Achilles, Paul, 1926-1933
Ade, Lester, 1934-1936
American Medical Association, 1932-1951
Arnold Gesell Papers 10