STHC-L: The Science, Technology and Health Care Archives Forum

Papers of Viola W. Bernard (Columbia University Health Sciences Library)

• Date:   Wed, 21 Jan 2004 11:03:14 -0800
• To:   sthc-l@library.ucla.edu
• From:   Russell A. Johnson <rjohnson@library.ucla.edu>
• Subject:   Papers of Viola W. Bernard (Columbia University Health Sciences Library)
• Message-ID:   f8044af7b266.f7b266f8044a@library.ucla.edu

Papers of Viola W. Bernard (Columbia University Health Sciences Library)

Forwarded to STHC-L from CADUCEUS-L. --RJ


----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen E. Novak" [sen13@columbia.edu]
Date: Thursday, January 15, 2004 5:47 am
Subject: Papers of Viola W. Bernard

Archives and Special Collections at the Columbia University Health
Sciences Library is pleased to announce the opening of the papers of
Viola W. Bernard (1907-1998). 

Dr. Bernard was an eminent psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and child welfare
advocate. She is perhaps best known as one of the founders of the field
of "community" or "social" psychiatry, which attempted to apply
psychiatric insights to the solution of social problems. Bernard was
founder and Director (1956-1969) of Columbia University's Division of
Community and Social Psychiatry, where she helped to train hundreds of
psychiatrists and public health specialists in the field. She was
active in dozens of professional, civic, educational and child welfare
organizations both locally and nationally in which she - and such
colleagues as Justine Wise Polier, Marion Kenworthy, Barbara Biber and
others - wielded considerable influence in setting the agenda on
children's issues. In addition, she became an expert in the
psychological issues surrounding adoption, infertility and family
formation.

Dr. Bernard's papers are over 128 cubic feet and span the dates
1918-2000. They include correspondence, oral history interviews,
reports, patient records, photographs, audio and video recordings,
phonograph records, printed material, newspaper clippings, and
artifacts. Almost every aspect of Bernard's life, both personal and
professional, is documented. The papers are particularly rich in
organizational records including those of the American Psychiatric
Association, American Psychoanalytic Association, Bank Street College of
Education, Columbia University School of Public Health, Citizens'
Committee for Children of New York, Group for the Advancement of
Psychiatry, Louise Wise Services, the New York City Board of Education's
Bureau of Child Guidance, Northside Center for Child Development and
Wiltwyck School for Boys. 

Other sides of Dr. Bernard's life that are richly documented here
include her involvement with Pierre Bernard's early ashram, the
Clarkstown Country Club, where she studied yoga and "Eastern
philosophy;" her marriage (1934-1938) to Pierre Bernard's nephew, Theos
C. Bernard, an explorer and scholar of Tibet; her involvement with
various civil liberties causes during the McCarthy era; her
participation in the Alger Hiss legal defense and her friendship with
the Hiss family; her advocacy of greater integration of
African-Americans in medicine and psychiatry and her professional and
financial support of individual black psychiatrists; and her membership
in numerous organizations opposing nuclear war, including the Pugwash
Conferences.

Funding for organizing the Viola W. Bernard Papers was first provided by
Dr. Bernard herself and, after her death, by her estate.

The finding aid for the Viola W. Bernard Papers, including a box and
folder list in PDF form, can be found at:

http://library.cpmc.columbia.edu/hsl/archives/findingaids/bernard.html

For general inquiries about the papers, please contact Archives and
Special Collections at hslarchives@columbia.edu
-- 
Stephen E. Novak
Head, Archives & Special Collections
Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library
Columbia University
701 West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032
(212) 305-7931
FAX: (212) 305-6097
URL: http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/library/archives/index.html