Back to Yale

According to the retirement rules Cushing himself had helped to set, he was to retire from Peter Bent Brigham Hospital at the age of 63. Showered with offers, including remaining at Harvard, he finally chose to return to Yale as Sterling Professor of Neurology (he preferred Neurology to Neurosurgery because he no longer felt in good enough health to operate). Though Cushing did not teach or do his own operations at Yale, he took part in a variety of Yale activities and was able to complete a number of major writing projects. At the time of his death, he was working on his A Bio-Bibliography of Andreas Vesalius. Moreover, he initiated the project, with Fulton and Klebs, of pooling their rare medical books to give to Yale if Yale would build a library to house them. Cushing’s lobbying among the administration and Corporation led to the decision to build a new medical library (medical books and journals were previously in Sterling Memorial Library) with a wing devoted to the Historical Library. Cushing heard that building would begin just before he died of a heart attack on October 7, 1939. Cushing’s Yale class of 1891, celebrating their 50th reunion, paid for the decoration of the Library rotunda. His Yale classmate and longtime friend, Grover Atterbury was the architect of the Library.

Cushing's Change of Address Card

Harvey and Kate Cushing arrived in New Haven in late 1933.

Croquet Game at the Cushing Home

In New Haven, Harvey and Kate Cushing rented a home at 691 Whitney Avenue (no longer standing) where they enjoyed playing croquet on the lawn. Kate Cushing is to the left.

Harvey and Kate Cushing

This is one of very few images of Harvey and Kate Cushing as a couple, seen here at the Beaumont Medical Club in Lebanon, CT. The Cushings were at a function relating to William Beaumont.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cushing’s Office at the New Haven Hospital

Cushing was given a very large office in the New Haven Hospital. The above photograph to the left shows only part of the space.

Cushing brought his extensive rare book collection with him to New Haven; he is shown with his books on the right.

Monograph on the Meningiomas, 1938

When Cushing moved to New Haven, Louise Eisenhardt moved too, along with the Brain Tumor Registry containing Cushing’s specimens of tumors and brains, photographs, and copies of patient records for all his cases, materials vital to completing this monograph. Michael Bliss writes of it: "In thirty-two chapters, comprising 741 pages of text, with hundreds of photographs, sketches, and tables, the authors told the complete history of Cushing’s thirty-year assault on the class of tumors which had most interested him and which he had named… Meningiomas was haled by reviewers as a masterpiece…"

Harvey Cushing with the collaboration of Louise Eisenhardt, Meningiomas, Their Classification, Regional Behavior, Life History and Surgical end Results . Springfield, Ill.: Charles C Thomas, 1938.

Honorary Degree from Oxford, 1938

This photograph, labeled by Cushing, shows the gathering of notable scientists from Europe and America at Balliol College, Oxford to celebrate Cushing’s receiving the Doctor of Sciences “honoris causis.” Cushing is in the front row wearing an academic gown. This was only one of many honorary degrees awarded to Cushing. Cushing’s robe from the University of Edinburgh (1927) is on display in the hallway leading to the Historical Library. The shields in this Library rotunda where you are standing are of universities who granted Cushing honorary degrees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seventieth Birthday Party, 1939

The Harvey Cushing Society, formed in 1932 by younger neurosurgeons in Cushing’s honor, planned their annual meeting for 1939 to be held in New Haven and to coincide with Harvey Cushing’s 70 th Birthday. At the formal dinner, Cushing was seated next to Arnold Klebs, who came over for the occasion from Switzerland as a special guest, and Louise Eisenstadt, Curator of the Brain Tumor Registry. In the above photograph, Eisenstadt presents Cushing with the gift of Bibliography of the Writings of Harvey Cushing, prepared by the Harvey Cushing Society and published by Charles C Thomas.

Seventieth Birthday Souvenir

Souvenir volume showing the attendees at the Harvey Cushing Society meeting in New Haven, April 7, 1939. Cushing’s actual 70th birthday was the following day, April 8. Cushing died of a heart attack six months later on October 7, 1939.

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