Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79022673
Collection material in English, with some German
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
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.
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.
A brief note on the Gesell Papers appeared in the
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Arnold Gesell in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
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.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Arnold Gesell Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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 The collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, reports, published and unpublished writings, addresses, lectures, and film scripts, clinical and medical books, personnel records, contracts, biographical and genealogical material, abstracts,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.
The collection is arranged in fourteen series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79022673
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.
Letters sent and received.
Arranged alphabetically by name of organization or correspondent and therein chronologically.
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.
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.
Handwritten and typewritten drafts and printed and near-print copies of speeches and articles.
Arranged chronologically and therein alphabetically by title.
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.
Chapters and articles written by Gesell for inclusion in texts, handbooks, and other publications.
Arranged alphabetically by title of contribution.
Handwritten and typewritten drafts and printed and typewritten copies of reviews.
Arranged alphabetically by title of book reviewed.
Bound volumes of Yale Clinic of Child Development monographs.
Arranged chronologically.
Handwritten and typewritten drafts and printed and typewritten copies of film scripts.
Arranged alphabetically by title, with related material arranged alphabetically by subject.
Appointment books, biographical material, financial papers, genealogical records, notes, notebooks, personal records, photographs, illustrations, and miscellaneous material.
Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Scrapbooks of magazine and newspaper clippings.
Arranged chronologically by earliest date of each volume.
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.
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.
Oversize certificates, charts, diplomas, graphs, illustrations, photographs, and schedules.
Arranged alphabetically.