The Children's Hospital of Boston: `Built Better Than They Knew

Abstract

The history of hospitals is becoming an increasingly important part of medical literature. Such works are placed on record data buried in various places: annual reports and committee minutes, correspondence, newspaper accounts, obituaries, contemporary biographies, and other documents. There are descriptions of buildings; enumeration of staff, with thumbnail biographical sketches of important figures; fund-raising activities; and important relations to the community. Such compendia furnish useful data—facts—for the historian who wants to understand the progress and development of medicine in its scientific, practical, and social contexts. They also provide gratification for all those who have, throughout the years, participated in the work of the institution. These are the conventional histories. Sometimes an author will enhance our understanding of the historical currents, of the social, scientific, intellectual, and cultural transformations that form the marrow of medical history. But all too often a history of a hospital is in essence a largely anecdotal