The New York Academy of Medicine and New York Public Radio (NYPR) have digitized and cataloged 40 radio broadcasts produced by NYAM and originally broadcast over WNYC radio in the 1950s. These lectures are drawn from the more than 1,500 original lacquer discs transferred from NYAM to the NYPR Archives in 2008. The digitization and cataloging resulted from a joint project between NYAM’s Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health and the New York Public Radio (NYPR) Archives, and with a grant from METRO, the New York Metropolitan Library Council.

The digitized lectures and talks are part of a particular collaboration between the Academy and WNYC, which was then owned and operated by the city. The New York Academy of Medicine and WNYC-FM began their radio relationship in 1946 with the launch of The Laity Lectures—later to become Lectures to the Laity—a popular series of Academy lectures and talks on culture and medicine that had started in 1935. By mid-1950, this series was joined by For Doctors Only, which aimed to bring “the best of the meetings, conferences, and roundtable discussions held at the academy” to the medical profession. On its debut broadcast of July 27, 1950, The New York Times called it “an epochal advance in the educational use of radio.” The New York World-Telegram and Sun referred to it as a “bold venture” and “enterprising” in the interest of good health for millions of people. It included broadcasts of the Graduate Fortnight, an annual two-week series of lectures, demonstrations, and exhibitions on a particular medical topic, which began in 1928. For Doctors Only also addressed critical analysis of issues of society and medicine, as well as the application of the social sciences to medicine, and provided academic presentations in the history of medicine. The WNYC/NYAM collaboration also included lectures from NYAM’s Eastern States Health Conferences, that appear not to be part of a particular series.

Project Direction: Paul Theerman, Associate Director, Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health
Technical Coordination: Andrew Gordon, Systems Librarian
Cataloging: Latrina Keith, Head of Cataloging
Selection of content, historical background: Arlene Shaner, Reference Librarian for Historical Collections
Archival and image research: Rebecca Pou, Archivist
Website development: Johanna Goldberg, Information Services Librarian
Administrative support: Sinéad Moloney, Administrative Assistant.

Andy Lanset – Director of Archives
Marcos Sueiro Bal – Senior Archivist and Primary Producer
John Passmore – Archives Manager and Producer
Adrian Cosentini – Disc Cleaning and Digitization