RIAMCO

Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online

For Participating Institutions

Charles V. Chapin Papers (MSS 343)

Rhode Island Historical Society

121 Hope Street
Providence, RI 02906
Tel: 401-273-8107
Fax: 401-751-7930
Email: reference@rihs.org

Scope & content

This collection, ranging from 1873-1941, has been divided into six series. Series one contains correspondence. Few personal letters are found in this collection. Most of the letters relate to Chapin's work as the Superintendent of Health and City Registrar.

Series two contains many handwritten and typed manuscripts on a variety of issues. Some are complete, others are incomplete or just notes. All but a few manuscripts have been identified. Many of the manuscripts are talks or lectures that he gave in front of a variety of groups. These groups include: Exchange Club, Rotary Club, Providence Medical Association, Clinical Club, Brown University, Harvard, Rhode Island Medical Society, Hartford School of Sociology, Brown & Sharpe, and nurses at various hospitals.

Series three contains miscellaneous material. There is material that is biographical in nature, such as a censors report, list of wedding gifts, a commission given by the American Medical Association, a contract with a private physician for service as a contract surgeon in the U.S. Army, as well as obituaries and tributes. The collection also contains certificates, a ledger on the sales of municipal sanitation in the United States and index cards indicating date of expected confinement (birth) of several women in 1928.

Series four contains physician reports on scarlet fever and typhoid sent to the Superintendent of Health. Each report gives names of patients for each address, their ages, and a note on their treatment. For some years the reports also indicate cases in public institutions; deaths; tabulation of results; and reports on patients visited who turned out to have some disease other than scarlet fever. The reports on typhoid also contains "notes on milk supplies."

Series five contains bound volumes of reports on contagious diseases taken by the Sanitary Inspector and series six contains bound scrapbooks kept by Anna Chapin pertaining to her husband, Charles.