Guide to the Papers of Harry E. Clark, 1903-1982
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- Papers of Harry E. Clark
- Creator
- Clark, Harry E.
- Collection Number
- MSS#26
- Extent
- 3.00 cubic feet (5 Boxes)
- Date
- 1903-1982
- Abstract
- Harry Elmore Clark (1862-1944) was born in North Fayette Township, Pennsylvania. After receiving his medical degree, he was active in numerous civic and commercial organizations and was elected president of the Sheraden Bank when it was founded in 1901. These papers include Dr. Clark's physician's day books, ledgers, correspondence, and other sundry material relating to both Dr. Clark and his family.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English.
- Sponsor
- This finding aid has been encoded as a part of the Historic Pittsburgh project a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Funding for this portion of the project has been donated by the Hillman Foundation.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
- 1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
Biographical Sketch of Harry E. Clark (1862-1944)
Harry Elmore Clark (1862-1944) was born on Oakdale Farm, North Fayette Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. He attended Starling Medical School in Columbus, Ohio, and later, the Western Pennsylvania Medical School from which he graduated in 1888. He was resident physician at Woodville Hospital until 1891 when he entered private practice. His address was listed in the 1908 Pittsburgh Directory as 755 Chartiers Avenue, and in the 1915 city directory as 2919 Chartiers Avenue, both in Pittsburgh's Sheraden neighborhood. A general practitioner, Clark maintained a medical office in his home and served a mostly local clientele. Hospitals to which he sent patients included Mercy, Presbyterian, Passavant, Allegheny General, and Homeopathic (later Shadyside). He was a member of the Allegheny County Medical Society and a Fellow of the American Medical Association. Dr. Clark was active in numerous civic and commercial organizations in the Sheraden community. He was elected president of the Sheraden Bank when it was founded in 1901 (in 1908 the bank was listed as the First National Bank of Sheraden, Chartiers Avenue and Harwood). Clark remained involved in the administration of the bank until his death. He was an organizer of the Sheraden Community Presbyterian Church in 1893, and a charter member and vice-president of the Fifty Year Club of the University of Pittsburgh.
On August 15, 1894, Clark married Margaret Reid Douglass (1871-1942), a life-long resident of Sheraden whose grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Douglass, arrived from England and settled in the Sheraden neighborhood in 1832. Harry and Margaret were the parents of four daughters and one son, Margaret Gaynor (1895-?), William Herdman (1898-?), Harriet Elmore (1903-?), Armede Boyd (1907-1981) and Reid Gaynor (1911-?). Margaret Gaynor Clark was married to J.H. White and lived in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Correspondence from two of her sons, S. Douglass White and Harry White, are included in these papers. Harriet attended Pennsylvania College for Women and by 1937, was a practicing teacher. During World War II, she served as the president of Sheraden Bank. Harriet and her sister Armede lived in the family home at 2919 Chartiers Avenue. Armede was a community leader and world traveler. Reid married William Robert Mead Osborne of Duquesne, Pennsylvania, on June 7, 1940. William, who married Dorothy J. Schmidt in 1932 in Ben Avon, was a physician who practiced medicine with his father. The Pittsburgh Blue Book lists Clark family members from 1940 to 1946.
Scope and Content Notes
These papers include Dr. Harry Clark's physician's day books, ledgers, correspondence, and other sundry material relating to both Dr. Clark and his family. Detailed information concerning Dr. Harry Clark's medical practice and business interests is primarily contained in 17 bound volumes, dated 1903 to 1944. Dr. Clark kept monthly records of patient visits, including patients' names, addresses, and payments. In some cases, the nature and treatment of patients' ailments and injuries, as well as hospital admittances and consultations with other doctors, are noted. Clark kept separate lists of confinements (birth records), abortions, miscarriages, premature births, and deaths, noting causes of death and ages of the deceased. Other information found in these day books includes remedies for common ailments (arthritis, poison ivy, asthma, obesity), phone numbers of local hospitals, drug stores, nurses, and tradespeople, employment records of his staff and occasional loose form letters advertising medical products. Inserted in the 1943-1944 physician's day book is a form letter from the American Felsol Company in Lorain, Ohio, offering physicians a trial supply of powders to use in the treatment of asthma and hay fever. Dr. Clark kept records of his automobile purchases and repairs, real estate records, and personal finance records in these volumes as well. Dr. Clark's personal correspondence includes a letter from his grandson concerning censorship of military mail during World War II, family newsletters of historical information on the family and life in Catonsville, Maryland, and a letter from William that describes his 152-mile trip from Sheraden to the assembly grounds at Lake Chautauqua, New York, by car in 1945. Miscellaneous materials include a poster with office hours of the father-son medical practice of Harry E. and William H. Clark, a leather-bound birthday and anniversary book that belonged to Armede Clark, and the script of a play, Three Cornered Moon, presented by the Sheraden Community Players and directed by Harriet Clark.
Arrangement
The Harry E. Clark Papers are housed in five archival boxes arranged alphabetically by folder title.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research. Researchers should use general standards of confidentiality when using personal medical records.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
These materials were received in one accession in 1982.
Acc# 1982.100 Gift of the Estate of Armede Boyd Clark, (Papers. Ms. Clark was the daughter of Harry Elmore Clark).
Preferred Citation
Papers of Harry E. Clark, 1903-1982, MSS#26, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
Processing Information
This collection was originally processed by Ruth Salisbury Reid in 1982. It was rearranged and the inventory was rewritten by Anne Foster on June 10, 1993.
Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Kimberly A. Tryka on February 3, 2000.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or publish, please contact the curator of the Archives.
Subjects
- Clark, Armede, -- 1907-1981.
- Clark, William, -- 1898-.
- Sheraden (Pittsburgh, Pa.) -- Social life and customs.
- Family medicine -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh.
- Hospitals -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh.
- Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions.
- Medicine -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh.
- Transportation, Automotive -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh.