Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Bullitt History of Medicine Club records #HC0009, Rare Book Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Gift of Dr. William W. McLendon, September 2007 (Acc. 2007009). Additional materials accrued by the Bullitt History of Medicine Club, 2007-2019. Materials from the Addition of January 2024 (Acc. 20240109.1) were transferred from the Health Sciences Library to Wilson Special Collections Library as part of the club's working files in 2018 and later accessioned as part of the Bullitt History of Medicine Club records in 2024.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Dawne Lucas, May 2016

Encoded by: Dawne Lucas, May 2016, July 2019, September 2019

Updated by: Davia Webb and Laura Smith, April 2024

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Berryhill, W. Reece (Walter Reece), 1900-1979.
• Bruce, Nancy.
• Bullitt History of Medicine Club--Records and Correspondence.
• Bullitt, James Bell, 1874-1964.
• College students--North Carolina--Societies, etc.
• Cunningham, Horace Herndon, 1913-1969.
• Curnes, John T. (John Taylor), 1954-
• Dewey, Nicholas, 1931-.
• Heusner, A. Price (Albert Price), 1910-1963.
• History of Medicine--Societies, etc.
• History of Medicine.
• Hooker, Charles W. (Charles Wright), 1910-1994.
• Long, Dorothy.
• McHenry, Lawrence C., 1929-
• McKnight, R. B. (Roy Bowman), 1893-1985.
• McLendon, William W.
• McVaugh, M. R. (Michael Rogers), 1938-
• Medical students--North Carolina--Societies and clubs.
• North Carolina.
• Organizations.
• Sedwitz, J. Lee.
• Semans, James H.
• Spanos, Alan.
• Sprunt, William H. (William Hutchinson), 1921-2007.
• Student activities--North Carolina.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Societies, etc.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--History--20th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). School of Medicine--Societies, etc.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Societies, etc.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Students--History.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. School of Medicine--History.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. School of Medicine--Societies, etc.
• Wells, Warner, 1913-1991.

The Bullitt History of Medicine Club promotes the understanding and appreciation of the historical foundations upon which current medical knowledge and practice is constructed, by encouraging social and intellectual exchanges between faculty members, medical students, and members of the community. The Bullitt Club holds several lecture meetings per year. All meetings are free and open to the public.

The club was founded in 1953 as the History Club of the UNC School of Medicine. The name changed to the James B. Bullitt History Club in 1958. A professor of pathology at UNC from 1913 to 1946, Dr. Bullitt was a consistent club attendee and was also popular with the medical students.

The first meetings of the Bullitt History of Medicine Club were held in the homes of various faculty members. As attendance grew, meetings were held in different places throughout the School of Medicine. Beginning in the 1970s, lectures began being held at the Health Sciences Library on a fairly consistent basis.

As interest in the history of medicine began to grow, the Trent History of Medicine Society at Duke also began to offer a series of monthly evening lectures, independent of the Bullitt Club series, and in the 2005/2006 academic year, the two organizations decided to collaborate, alternating the meeting location each month between the UNC-Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library and the Duke Medical Library History of Medicine Collections.

Two years later the Bullitt Club noon lecture series was begun. The noon lectures were shorter, and were presented in months when the evening lecture was hosted at Duke.

Due to the success of the Bullitt Club noon lecture series, and concern that students would not want to return to campus for an evening lecture, the Bullitt Club made the decision to hold the majority of its 2012/2013 meetings during the day, rather than in the evening. In that same academic year the Trent History of Medicine Society chose to focus on sponsoring one major lecture each semester during the academic year, thus ending the jointly sponsored lecture series.

This collection contains administrative records and information about meetings of the Bullitt History of Medicine Club, including correspondence, procedures, and meeting announcements. Much of the correspondence is between Bullitt Club leadership and potential speakers and collaborators, including Doctors in Gray: The Confederate Medical Service author H. H. Cunningham; Leslie B. Adams, Jr.; E. K. Atkinson; Nicholas Dewey; Norman Harden; Ralph R. Landes; Roy McKnight; J. Lee Sedwitz; James Semans; and Robert T. Whitlock. Correspondents representing the University of North Carolina include: W. Reece Berryhill; Nancy G. Bruce; John Curnes; A. Price Heusner; Charles W. Hooker; Dorothy Long; Lawrence McHenry; William W. McLendon; Michael R. McVaugh; Alan Spanos; William H. Sprunt III; and Warner Wells. There is very little information about the club's activities during the 1990s.

• Bullitt History of Medicine Club website (via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine)