The History of 20th Century Hematology: Drs. Janet Vaughan and George Minot

MHSNJ Zoom Program—Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Speaker:  David J. Wolf, MD

Topic:  The History of 20th Century Hematology: Drs. Janet Vaughan and George Minot

Dame Janet Maria Vaughan (1899-1993), a pioneering British hematopathologist, is known for establishing national blood banks, for developing strategies to confront malnutrition in concentration camp survivors, and for her research efforts on the hematopoietic effects of radioactivity.

Dr. Wolf has submitted the following abstract of his talk:

A 1936 second edition presentation copy of The Anaemias authored by Janet Vaughn (1899-1993) in my antiquarian medical book collection has three inscriptions on the recto of the first free endpaper. These inscriptions serve as the genesis of this talk. The first inscription in the author's hand to Dr. George Richards Minot is followed by an inscription in the hand of Dr. George Minot after receiving the copy. Lastly follows an inscription in an unknown hand stating that Janet Vaughn was principal of Somerville College, Oxford and related to the novelist Virgina Woolf. This talk describes Dr. Vaughn's extraordinary life, her relationship with Virginia Woolf , and her long friendship with her mentor and Nobel laureate Dr. George Minot. 

In 1929 Lady Osler facilitated Dr. Vaughan being awarded a Rockefeller Travelling fellowship to the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory in Boston under the directorship of Dr. Minot.  Following her one year fellowship in Boston, her career blossomed. She became a pioneering woman hematopathologist and social activist at a time when the medical profession did not welcome women. 

This talk describes how Dr. Vaughan established and directed the Emergency Blood Transfusion Service during the London blitz, traveled in 1945 to the liberated German Belsen concentration camp to research refeeding the starving emaciated internees; and describes her tenure after WWII as Principal of Somerville College at Oxford University. As Principal, Dr. Vaughan continued to perform laboratory research on the metabolism of bone-seeking radioisotopes, to participate on governmental committees to restructure the British healthcare system, reform medical education, and to advocate for social justice for women and the impoverished. In 1957 she was named a Dame of the British Empire; and at age 80, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

About the speaker:

David J. Wolf, M.D.  is a retired clinical hematologist who spent his professional career on the Faculty of Weill Medical College at Cornell University and New-York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. He is an antiquarian medical book collector who has been a member of the Grolier Club since 2010. He sits on the Board of Governors and membership committee of the American Osler Society. In 2021 Dr. Wolf established the David J. Wolf, M.D. Medical Archives Endowment which sponsors the David J. Wolf, M.D. Visiting Research Scholar Program at Weill-Cornell Medicine. As a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, he sits on the Section for the History of Medicine Executive Committee.

*Zoom link will be uploaded soon.