Letters and documents received by Lawrence F. Flick

Collection

Identifier: 10a 368

Scope and Contents

The letters and documents received by Lawrence F. Flick consist of 55 bound volumes of chronological correspondence. They contain letters, notes, postcards, etc. from colleagues and patients, all related to Flick’s expertise in the research and treatment of tuberculosis. Volumes are labeled “Tuberculosis letters” on the spine with the year and month(s), except for volume 40, which is labeled “Miscellaneous” and is undated.

Dates

1881-1908

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Some restrictions may apply. Contact the library for more information.

Biographical / Historical

Lawrence Francis Flick (1856-1938) was a Philadelphia physician who specialized in the research and treatment of tuberculosis.

Flick was born August 10, 1856 near Carrolltown, Pennsylvania. He attended Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania but contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and did not complete his studies there. Once he had regained some of his health, he enrolled in Jefferson Medical College, graduating from medical school in 1879 and interning at Blockley. He began his specialization in tuberculosis treatment and research in 1882 and was one of the first people to theorize that tuberculosis was an airborne contagious disease. His efforts to isolate “consumptives,” as tuberculosis patients were then called, into private hospitals known as sanitariums and to register their cases was controversial in the medical field.

In 1890 Flick incorporated the Rush Hospital for Consumption and Allied Diseases and formed the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis in 1892. In 1901 he founded the White Haven Sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis, where he served as director until 1935. In 1903, thanks to a donation from Henry Phipps, Jr. Flick opened the Henry Phipps Institute for the Study, Treatment, and Prevention of Tuberculosis in Philadelphia. He served as the director of the Institute until it became part of the University of Pennsylvania in 1910.

Flick also co-founded the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (now the American Lung Association), advocating for it as early as 1898 and helping to form it in 1904. He also promoted the International Congress on Tuberculosis in 1908.

Lawrence Flick died on July 7, 1938 in Philadelphia.