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Tufts-New England Medical Center Records

 Collection
Call Number: MS224

Scope and Contents

This collection contains reports, architectural and engineering plans, surveys, correspondence, financial records, and grant documents by and about the Tufts-New England Medical Center and Tufts-New England Medical Center, Inc. The files in this collection primarily deal with parking, properties management, urban planning in the South Cove neighborhood of Boston, and research grant projects undertaken at the hospital. Of particular note are the Administrative records series, which offers a periodic overview of division and department operations, and the Planning records series, which documents the physical expansion of the hospital, as well as the proposed integration between the hospital and Tufts University. The physical collection documentation folder of this collection includes copies of Dave Nathan’s original finding aid entries as well as copies of the original acquisition records.



As there was a periodic shifting of departments to and from NEMC/T-NEMC and their constituent institutions, any comprehensive search of a particular topic over time must involve also consulting the other NEMC archives collections at TARC. Contact TARC for more information about associated materials.



This collection suffered extensive water damage due to a flood before it was in the custody of DCA. It underwent conservation efforts before processing, but several materials, particularly folders, scrapbooks, and bound volumes, are still warped or retain a musty odor. In addition, some items are fragile, and must be handled carefully

Dates

  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1960 -- 1980
  • Creation: 1929 -- 1990

Creator

Language of Materials

English

Biographical / Historical

The Tufts-New England Medical Center (T-NEMC) was the official partnership between Tufts University and the New England Medical Center. In 1930, the School of Medicine, the Boston Dispensary, and the Boston Floating Hospital for Infants and Children created an alliance known as the New England Medical Center. Over the next forty years the evolution of NEMC, the physical move of the Medical and Dental Schools to Chinatown, and the overall shift in health care necessitated the need for a joint venture between Tufts and NEMC, a unified organization which would provide medical care as well as support research and teaching. Now named the Tufts Medical Center, it is the primary teaching hospital for Tufts Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine, and is located in the Chinatown neighborhood of Boston.



In 1930, the governing bodies of the Boston Dispensary (BD), the Boston Floating Hospital for Infants and Children (BFH), and the Trustees of Tufts College created the New England Medical Center (NEMC). NEMC was established as a non-profit organization to coordinate the operations of its constituent organizations. Population growth and newer approaches to providing citizens economical medical care would foster the evolution of NEMC over the next two decades. In 1938, for instance, a donation from William Bingham, 2nd built the Joseph H. Pratt Diagnostic Hospital. Over time, the Pratt Clinic expanded, and subsumed the BD. The need for additional space dictated the addition of Farnsworth Surgical Building and Ziskind Research Center. The merging of these hospital units became the third piece of NEMC, the New England Medical Center Hospital (NEMCH). NEMCH was a 452-bed non-profit hospital that addressed needs in cardiology, cancer, endocrinology, hematology, kidney disease, among others. At NEMCH, patient care was integrated with student and physician training, as well as research, further cementing the relationship between NEMC and Tufts.



A physical move of the Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine to Harrison Avenue in Chinatown, the same neighborhood as the hospitals, provided access for students and physicians. Yet, despite these physical advancements, an organizational structure unifying these entities was still lacking. Each unit operated under its own governing body, which made decision making across the medical center cumbersome. To address this issue, an organized planning effort began for NEMC to become one fully integrated, multi-operational complex dedicated to research, teaching, and medical care.



In 1965, the University/Hospital alliance was named the Tufts-New England Medical Center. It included the three units of NEMC and Tufts University Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine. In addition, a separate corporation was established to jointly govern the University and Hospital, known as T-NEMC, Inc., incorporated in 1968. T-NEMC, Inc. had its own board, composed of members of the Board of Trustees of Tufts, as well as members of the Board of Governors of NEMC. This collaboration would continue to grow, with professors at the School of Medicine advocating for T-NEMC to serve as the primary teaching hospitals for the School of Medicine.



By 1976, T-NEMC controlled common services, which included health care studies, medical engineering, community health and ambulatory care, employee-student health services, communications, parking facilities, property ownership, and public relations. By the late 1970s both institutions had experienced a change in leadership, and interest in collaboration dissipated.



Tufts and NEMC, once again separate after T-NEMC, Inc. was dismantled, drafted a new affiliation agreement in 1991. In 2000, the center was once again named Tufts-New England Medical Center, and in 2008 was renamed the Tufts Medical Center, reflecting the working partnership between Tufts University and the New England Medical Center hospitals.

Extent

58.8 Linear Feet (49 record boxes )

Arrangement

This collection is organized into 5 series: Legacy collection documentation; Administration records; Cancer Center; Financial records; and Planning office records.

Custodial History

This collection was originally part of the archives of the New England Medical Center (NEMC), which closed in 1990. The collection was processed by Dave Nathan, archivist at the NEMC archives, in July 1989, and had the following NEMC acquisition numbers: 84-28, 85-12, 85-17, 85-35, 85-1, 85-37, 87-3, 86-54, 83-2, 83-9, 83-13, 84-2, 84-18, 84-27, 84-29, 85-12, 86-37, 86-25.



In spring 2013, NEMC material was transferred from NEMC to a restoration company for conservation treatment, and was then transferred to off-site storage in custody of Digital Collections and Archives (DCA). In December 2014 and January 2015, the material was transferred to DCA for processing. Some material originally in the NEMC archives was not transferred to DCA, due to either poor condition or loss.

Related Materials

MS099, New England Medical Center records, DCA

Dave Nathan transferred images to the Visual Materials collection at the New England Medical Center archives in 1989 -- and T-NEMC photographs are now located in the Photographs and audiovisual materials series of the New England Medical Center records (MS099.001). Other T-NEMC records may also be found in MS099, as noted above.

MS213, Boston Floating Hospital records, DCA

MS214, Boston Dispensary records, DCA

MS222, Pratt Clinic/New England Center Hospital records, DCA

MS228, Bingham Associates Fund records, DCA

Processing Information

This collection was processed from December 2014 through February 2015 by Elizabeth Mc Gorty, Project Archivist, under the supervision of Liz Francis, Records Archivist.



This collection was previously processed by Dave Nathan. On transfer to DCA, received order was maintained at the series level. Folders were re-arranged in alphabetical or chronological order, and some material was rehoused in archival folders. Collection and series description written by Dave Nathan was updated. Not all material listed in Dave Nathan's Guide to the NEMC Archives was transferred to DCA. According to Dave Nathan's Guide to the NEMC Archives, the T-NEMC Center for Birth Defects Information Services series is missing. Items missing from other series have been noted at the series level.

Processing status

This collection is processed and open for research

Repository Details

Part of the Tufts Archival Research Center Repository

Contact:
35 Professors Row
Tisch Library Building
Tufts University
Medford Massachusetts 02155 United States
617-627-3737