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Founders and Early Benefactors
Clements C. Fry
Clements
Collard Fry, M.D., 1892-1955
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The Fry Print Collection, bequeathed
to the Historical Library by Clements C. Fry in 1955, is among the largest and
most comprehensive collections of art related to the history of medicine. Its two thousand prints and drawings span
five centuries and represent the work of over 600 artists. A medical graduate
of Northwestern, Fry joined the faculty of Yale University School of Medicine
in 1926 as Clinical Instructor in Medical Hygiene and Psychiatry, later
becoming Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry. He also began
his connection with newly formed Division of Mental Hygiene in the Department
of University Health, becoming its Head in 1937. Fry’s collecting began soon
after his arrival at Yale. Although he acquired medical prints early on, he
first concentrated on editions and manuscripts of Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-
1914), a leading Philadelphia neurologist/psychiatrist and literary figure.
According to Fry, when Mitchell items became scarcer and more expensive, he
devoted more time to prints. His prints were associated with the Medical
Library from the beginning. They were on display at the dedication in 1941 and
hung in the hallway long before they were given to the Library. |
| Five Hundred Years of Medicine in Art: An Illustrated Catalogue of Prints
and Drawings in the Clements C. Fry Collection in the Harvey Cushing/John Hay
Whitney Medical Library at Yale University. Aldershot, England Burlington, VT:
Ashgate, 2001.
The catalog of the Fry Print Collection contains descriptions and black and
white images of over 1600 prints.
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Susan Wheeler
Five Hundred Years of Medicine in Art: An Illustrated Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the Clements C. Fry Collection in the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
Aldershot, England Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001.
[See
Orbis record] |
S. Weir Mitchell, 1829-1914.
A Psalm of Deaths and Other Poems
Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1890.
Author’s presentation copy.
Gift of Clements C. Fry.
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While continuing to practice and teach,
Mitchell wrote novels and poems. A
Psalm of Deaths contains some of Mitchell’s most important early poems that
long remained unpublished. This volume was acquired with a letter of
presentation in Mitchell’s very recognizable hand. Mitchell manuscripts in the
Library’s collection include drafts of a play and novel and case reports. |
| Having a keen sense of humor, Fry
enjoyed the cartoons in the New Yorker. On
several occasions, Fry purchased from the artists the original drawings. This
print is an example of Fry’s earlier collecting. |
Whitney
Darrow, b. 1909.
“It’s a pity I didn’t get to your case earlier, Mrs. Perkins…,” |
Lucas van Leyden, 1494-1533
The Surgeon, 1524
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As Fry’s collection became better known and was exhibited at the National
Gallery of Art, Fry purchased more works of fine art such as this 16th century
engraving. Here the surgery --the cutting for stones in the head--is
metaphorical, for the subject is the cure of foolishness or folly. |
| Fry’s bookplate found in the books
he donated. |
Bookplate
4 x 7 cm |
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