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COLLECTION Identifier: H MS c302

John B. Little papers

Overview

Records in the collection were created or collected by John B. Little during the course of his professional and research activities at Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Massachusetts General Hospital. Record types include correspondence, reports, grant applications, newspaper clippings, manuscripts, meeting minutes, agendas, photographs, contact sheets, negatives, slides, 3.5” and 5.5” diskettes, and X-rays. Topics include student activism at Harvard during the 1970s and 1980s, re-organization of the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health during the 1970s and 1980s, work done at the Kresge Environmental Health Center and Little's faculty and administrative work at Harvard Medical School and the School of Public Health. Also included are records of Little’s activity as an expert advisor at institutions other than Harvard.

Dates

  • Creation: 1855-2015 (inclusive),
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1960s-2000 .

Creator

Language of Materials

Papers are predominantly in English with some materials in German, French, Russian, and Chinese.

Conditions Governing Access

Colleciton is open for research. Access requires advance notice. Access to Harvard University records is restricted for 50 years from the date of creation. These restrictions are noted where they appear in Series I, II, III, IV, V, and VI. Access to personal and patient information is restricted for 80 years from the date of creation. These restrictions are noted where they appear in Series I and II. Researchers may apply for access to restricted records. Consult Public Services for further information.

Access to electronic records in this collection (as found in Series I and II) is also subject to the above restrictions. Additionally, access is premised on the availability of a computer station, requisite software, and/or the ability of Public Services staff to review and/or print out records of interest in advance of an on-site visit.

The Papers are stored offsite. Researchers are advised to consult Public Services for further information concerning retrieval of material.

Conditions Governing Use

The Harvard Medical Library does not hold copyright on all materials in the collection. Researchers are responsible for identifying and contacting any third-party copyright holders for permission to reproduce or publish. For more information on the Center's use, publication, and reproduction policies, view our Reproductions and Use Policy.

Extent

58 cubic feet ( (57 records center cartons and 1 flat box) )
.5 gigabytes* ( (electronic records))
15 cubic feet (Unprocessed papers in 15 records center cartons)

The collection consists of records created and collected by John Bertram Little during his professional and research activities at the Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, and Massachusetts General Hospital. The materials include correspondence, reports, grant applications, newspaper clippings, meeting minutes, agendas, photographs, contact sheets, negatives, slides, 3.5” and 5.5” diskettes, and X-rays. The collection also includes experiment and research records, manuscripts in various states of preparation for publication, faculty records, class syllabi, lecture schedules, grant applications, and project reports. Topics include student activism at Harvard during the 1970s and 1980s (including the Bok Report), the re-organization of the Harvard Medical School and the School of Public Health during the 1970s and 1980s, the work done at the Kresge Environmental Health Center, and Little’s faculty work as a teacher of radiology and physiology. The collection also reflects Little’s activities as a consultant and member of professional organizations such as the Radiation Effects Research Council, the American Cancer Society, and the New England Roentgen Ray Society.

The collection is predominantly in English with some materials in German, French, Russian, and Chinese.

Biographical Notes

John B. Little (1929-2020), B.A., 1951, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts; M.D., 1955, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. Little interned at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He joined the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health in 1965. A brief chronology of Little's professional activity follows.

Professional Activity of John B. Little
1929
Born Boston, Massachusetts
1951
B.A. (Physics), Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
1955
M.D., Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
1955-1956
Intern (Medicine), Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland
1956-1957
Assistant Radiologist, United States Army Hospital, Fort Hood, Texas
1957-1958
Chief of Radiology, United States Army Hospital, Landes de Bussac, Bordeaux, France
1958-1961
Resident (Radiology), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
1961-1965
Clinical Assistant (Radiology), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
1963
Fellow (Physiology), Harvard University
1963-1965
Instructor (Physiology, Radiobiology), Harvard School of Public Health
1965-
Consultant (Radiology), Massachusetts General Hospital
1965-1969
Assistant Professor (Radiobiology), Harvard School of Public Health
1969-
Lecturer (Radiation Therapy), Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
1969-1975
Associate Professor (Radiobiology), Harvard School of Public Health
1975-1987
Professor (Radiobiology), Harvard School of Public Health
1980-1983
Chairman (Physiology), Harvard School of Public Health
1987-
James Stevens Simmons Professor of Radiobiology, Harvard School of Public Health
24 May 2020
Death, Brookline, Mass.

Series and Subseries in the Collection

  1. I. Research Records, 1958-2002, undated
  2. ___ A. Grant Records, 1966-2001, undated
  3. ___ B. Laboratory Notebooks, 1938-2002, undated
  4. II. Professional Appointments, 1959-2003, undated
  5. ___A. Harvard University, 1959-2003, undated
  6. ______ 1. Teaching Records, 1959-2002, undated
  7. ______ 2. Committee Service, 1962-2003, undated
  8. ___ B. MIT Teaching Records, 1966-1979, undated
  9. III. Consultancies and Professional Service, 1855-2002, undated
  10. IV. Manuscripts and Publications, 1960-2004, undated
  11. V. Correspondence, 1962-2003
  12. VI. Personal Papers, 1969-2006, undated

Custodial History

The collection was donated to the Center for the History of Medicine in 2004 and 2008 by John Bertram Little.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

  1. Accession number 2004-016. John Bertram Little. 23 February 2004.
  2. Accession number 2008-083. John Bertram Little. 27 June 2008.

Separations

A box containing glass microscope slides was transferred to the Warren Anatomical Museum (Acc. #2014-012).

Processing Information

Processed by Hanna Clutterbuck-Cook, 2014 March.

Staff at the Center reboxed, refoldered, and listed the collection and created a finding aid to enhance access. Material in three-ring binders was removed from the binders, the binder titles transcribed as folder titles, and the binders discarded. .5 cubic feet of duplicate class materials were discarded. Triplicate copies of these materials were retained in the collection. 3.5" floppy diskettes were imaged using the FTK (Forensic Toolkit) and digital surrogates are available for researcher use; two disks could not be imaged. The original disks were retained in the collection. Researchers should be aware that words in brackets in folder titles were illegible or nearly so on the original folders; in these cases, the original folder tabs have been removed and placed with the refoldered material.

Title
Little, John B. (Bertram), 1929-2020. Papers, 1855-2006 (inclusive), 1960s-2000 (bulk): Finding Aid.
Author
Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. Center for the History of Medicine.
Language of description
und
Sponsor
Processing of the John B. Little papers was funded by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine's Lloyd E. Hawes Fund for Radiology.
EAD ID
med00183

Repository Details

Part of the Center for the History of Medicine (Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine) Repository

The Center for the History of Medicine in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine is one of the world's leading resources for the study of the history of health and medicine. Our mission is to enable the history of medicine and public health to inform healthcare, the health sciences, and the societies in which they are embedded.

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