Ernest Craige letters and cartoons open for research!

Rebecca C. Thayer Center for the History of Medicine

The Center for the History of Medicine is pleased to announce that the Ernest Craige letters and cartoon drawings are now open to research!

Ernest “Tito” Craige (1918-2008), B.A., University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, 1939; M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, 1943; was Professor Emeritus of Medicine at UNC Chapel Hill. Craige attended Harvard Medical School (HMS) from 1939 to 1943, where he studied cardiology with Paul Dudley White (dates). Craige was also a cartoonist, and in his letters home he sometimes added cartoons about his life as a medical student.

Pen sketch of a man in an iron lung with components labeled
Craige tests out a new iron lung while a resident at Haynes Memorial Hospital (now Boston Medical Center), 1943 August 16. Ernest Craige letters and cartoon drawings, 1939-1961 (inclusive). H MS c650. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.

 

After graduation, Craige completed US Army training at Camp Barkley in Texas. In 1944 and 1945, Craige served in the US Army Fifth Auxiliary Surgery Group in France and Germany. He continued to send letters to his family along with cartoons of his wartime experience.

A man lounging on a hay stack says "war is hell" while a man carrying hay says "you said it - think this will be enough?"
Craige illustrates hay beds used in France, 1944 January 27. Ibid.

 

After the war, Craige returned to Massachusetts General Hospital for further training with Paul Dudley White. In 1952 he moved to UNC Chapel Hill Medical School, becoming the first chief of the division of cardiology. He also continued to create cartoons about the practice of medicine, especially the influence of computers and automation on medical care and research.

A robot computer taps on the shoulder of a doctor tending to a patient
A Craige cartoon depicting a computer looming over the doctor-patient relationship, undated. Ibid.

 

The Ernest Craige letters and cartoons, 1939-1945 (inclusive), relate to Craige’s experience as a student at Harvard Medical School and during his service with the Fifth Auxiliary Surgery Group in World War II. There are additional cartoons representing or satirizing topics relating to the practice of medicine dating up to 1961.

For more about Ernest Craige and the collection, please view the collection finding aid.