Letter from Karl A. Connell to Virginia Apgar
Main Title:
Letter from Karl A. Connell to Virginia Apgar
Description:
Connell Apparatus manufactured and serviced the anesthesia machines used at Presbyterian Hospital. During Apgar's first years as director of the Anesthesia Division, the hospital grappled with the problem of explosions resulting from accidental ignition of anesthesia gases in the operating room. It was not always clear where the sparks originated in these accidents, and Connell worked with the hospital staff to discover which equipment and materials were causing them. In this letter, Connell described a modification to the equipment and other methods to reduce the risk of sparking from static electricity.; Item is handwritten.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1939-3-9
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Allen O. Whipple
Main Title:
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Allen O. Whipple
Description:
In 1937, after nearly a year's residency training in anesthesiology, Apgar was invited back to Columbia-Presbyterian (where she had done her surgery internship) to set up and head a new division of anesthesia there. In this letter, she outlined her plan for the division to Whipple, director of the department of surgery.; NOTE: Handwritten text at top of first page illegible in original.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1937-11-29
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Allen O. Whipple
Main Title:
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Allen O. Whipple
Description:
In this letter, Apgar addressed several of her early concerns as director of the Anesthesia Division, including professional fees for anesthesiologists attending surgery for private patients, the temporary ban on use of cyclopropane (her own first choice of anesthesia), and the need for a permanent research anesthesiologist to develop the research component of the division.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1939-9-25
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Helen Apgar
Main Title:
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Helen Apgar
Description:
In this letter, an enthusiastic Apgar told her mother about her first few days at Mount Holyoke College.; Item is a photocopy.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1925
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Paul A. Harper
Main Title:
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Paul A. Harper
Description:
Sent in response to Harper's request for seminar outlines, this letter included the outlines, which demonstrate how Apgar conceptualized delivery-room problems after several decades' experience with them, and an essay, The Perinatal Problem, in which she discussed the need for a national medical education program in the emerging field of neonatology.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1958-03-24
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Elsie R. Carrington to Virginia Apgar
Main Title:
Letter from Elsie R. Carrington to Virginia Apgar
Description:
In this letter, Carrington, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, asked Apgar for a brief contribution to a symposium on human teratogenesis.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1965-10-22
Genre:
correspondence
Statement by Virginia Apgar to the Subcommittee on Health, Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare
Main Title:
Statement by Virginia Apgar to the Subcommittee on Health, Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare
Description:
Representing the National Foundation-March of Dimes, Apgar testified about the importance of the federal funding of immunization programs then being considered by the Senate. She explained the tragic consequences of rubella (German measles) infection in the first trimester of pregnancy, and the need to start an immunization program before the next rubella epidemic, expected in 1970 or 1971. Funding would be needed not only for the vaccine itself, but for a wide distribution network, and an educational campaign.; Item is a photocopy.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1969-06-30
Genre:
speeches
Letter from Joan Dunkelberger to Virginia Apgar
Main Title:
Letter from Joan Dunkelberger to Virginia Apgar
Description:
In 1937, after nearly a year's residency training in anesthesiology, Apgar was invited back to Columbia-Presbyterian (where she had done her surgery internship) to set up and head a new division of anesthesia there. In this letter, she outlined her plan for the division to Whipple, director of the department of surgery.; NOTE: Handwritten text at top of first page illegible in original.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1973-04-11
Genre:
correspondence
Rh Disease, 1970
Main Title:
Rh Disease, 1970
Description:
Speaking to the Seventh Annual Immunization Conference at the National Communicable Disease Center (now the Centers for Disease Control), Apgar reviewed the great progress made in the knowledge, treatment, and prevention of Rh disease. An immune reaction between a mother with Rh-negative blood type and fetus with Rh-positive type, Rh disease affected up to 12% of children born to Rh-negative women married to Rh-positive men, causing post-natal jaundice and anemia which often led to mental retardation, motor disabilities, and cerebral palsy.; Item is a photocopy.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1970-03-26
Genre:
speeches
Letter from Virginia Apgar to L. Joseph Butterfield
Main Title:
Letter from Virginia Apgar to L. Joseph Butterfield
Description:
Butterfield and his residents at the University of Colorado Medical Center modified the order and wording of the Apgar score's five points, so that they spelled APGAR. This epigram form proved a useful teaching device, and Butterfield passed it along to Apgar. As this response indicated, Apgar was delighted by the innovation. By the late 1960s it had become the standard for Apgar score forms.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1961-08-01
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from L. Joseph Butterfield to Virginia Apgar
Main Title:
Letter from L. Joseph Butterfield to Virginia Apgar
Description:
Butterfield and his residents at the University of Colorado Medical Center modified the order and wording of the Apgar score's five points, so that they spelled APGAR. This epigram form proved a useful teaching device, and Butterfield passed it along to Apgar. By the late 1960s it had become the standard for Apgar score forms.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1961-07-27
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Virginia Apgar to F. W. Clement
Main Title:
Letter from Virginia Apgar to F. W. Clement
Description:
Dr. Clement had asked Apgar's advice about a puzzling case in which spinal anesthesia seemed to cause paralysis long after the operation. In this letter, she encouraged him to publish an account of the case, which was the first of its kind in which pontocaine was the drug used. She suggested the possibility that underlying neurological disease might have caused such a response, as there were cases on record where this had happened with other spinal anesthetics. The exchange illustrates the clinical problems encountered by anesthesiologists in the inter-war years, as well as their efforts to build up the knowledge base in their new specialty.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1938-4-25
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Ralph M. Waters to Virginia Apgar
Main Title:
Letter from Ralph M. Waters to Virginia Apgar
Description:
In 1936, at the suggestion of her mentor at Columbia-Presbyterian, Apgar made inquiries to the few existing anesthesiology programs about getting a residency with them. Initially, none of them had any residency openings. Waters was able to offer her a position for 1937, but he could not offer her lodging in the residents' rooms at the hospital (the usual arrangement at that time) because the hospital had too many house officers.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1936-10-29
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Ralph M. Waters to Virginia Apgar
Main Title:
Letter from Ralph M. Waters to Virginia Apgar
Description:
In 1936, at the suggestion of her mentor at Columbia-Presbyterian, Apgar made inquiries to the few existing anesthesiology programs about getting a residency with them. Initially, none of them had any residency openings, though she eventually was able to study with Waters and then with Emery Rovenstine, two leaders in the field.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1936-4-27
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Karl A. Connell
Main Title:
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Karl A. Connell
Description:
Responding to Connell's letter of March 9, 1939, Apgar reported that the anesthesia machines were working well since Connell's modifications, answered his questions about the possible source of sparks, and commented on the need to use more common sense in the operating room, to prevent accidental explosions.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1939-3-21
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Virginia Apgar to R. S. Ikonen
Main Title:
Letter from Virginia Apgar to R. S. Ikonen
Description:
Dr. Ikonen of Finland sent Apgar a copy of his doctoral thesis, the topic of which was the Apgar score. In this response, Apgar reflected on the expectations that had grown around the score since she first reported on it.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1974-07-03
Genre:
correspondence
Virginia Apgar
Main Title:
Virginia Apgar
Description:
Portrait of Virginia Apgar from 1929, her Senior year at Mount Holyoke College
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1929
Genre:
photographs
Letter from Cindy Luginbill to Virginia Apgar
Main Title:
Letter from Cindy Luginbill to Virginia Apgar
Description:
Letter to Dr. Apgar regarding concerns with taking the pill and conceiving a healthy baby afterwards.
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1973-03-22
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Joan Dunkelberger
Main Title:
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Joan Dunkelberger
Description:
Letter of concern to Dr. Apgar regarding the effects of microwave ovens on pregnant women
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1973-06-14
Genre:
correspondence
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Cindy Luginbill
Main Title:
Letter from Virginia Apgar to Cindy Luginbill
Description:
Reply to a patient who is concerned that taking the pill causes birth defects
Collection:
Virginia Apgar papers
Date Created:
1973-05-17
Genre:
correspondence

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