Coleman Brothers Collection
I had the privilege to work on a newly acquired 19th Century archival collection consisting over 400 items including personal correspondence, manuscripts, and legal documents. The highlight of the collection is the correspondence between the brothers and Yale-educated physicians Isaac P. Coleman and James B. Coleman of New Jersey spanning their years at the Medical Institution of Yale College (Yale University School of Medicine) through the beginnings of their respective medical practices in New Jersey. In addition, the archives contain the doctors' correspondence with other practitioners and James Coleman's notes and lectures on phrenology and 33 photographs of the extended family. The letters particularly document Isaac P. Coleman's time at Yale (1829-1832). Notable professional correspondents include preceptors, Dr. Francis A. Ewing of Trenton and Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, a Philadelphia psychiatrist who had also studied medicine with Nicholas Belleville in Trenton. Medical topics include medical education including anatomy and dissection, New Jersey licensing law, medical treatments, smallpox and vaccination, and phrenology.