Edmund D. Pellegrino Papers
Collection
Identifier: BRL-007
The collection contains the papers of Dr. Edmund D. Pellegrino and primarily documents his career at Georgetown University as Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, the Center for the Advanced Study of Ethics, and Center for Clinical Bioethics. It includes correspondence, publications on medical ethics, course and conference files, presentation files, administrative records related to boards and committees at Georgetown University and elsewhere, memorabilia and biographical files, audiovisual recordings, and records related to the Institute of Human Values in Medicine.
Overall, the collection documents Pellegrino's contributions to the field of bioethics, particuarly as an educator and administrator at Georgetown University.
Unpublished Georgetown University administrative records may be consulted only with the permission of the University office which created it. This includes, but is not limited to, the following materials:
Sub-series 1.1: General Correspondence: Georgetown University administrative correspondence found in boxes 32 and 33.
Sub-series 3.1: Georgetown University Courses and Conferences: All unpublished materials.
Series 4: Kennedy Institute of Ethics Records: All unpublished materials.
Series 5: Center for the Advanced Study of Ethics Records: All unpublished materials.
Series 6: Center for Clinical Bioethics Records: All unpublished materials.
Series 8: Board and Committee Files: Georgetown University administrative records found in boxes 34-37, 41, and Born-Digital Media Box 1.
Series 9: Grants and Proposals: Georgetown Genome Project folders in box 72.
Additionally, the folder titled “Journal Article Critiques” is closed until 2080 for privacy purposes.
All other processed materials are generally open for research.
Researchers are solely responsible for determining the copyright status of the materials being used, establishing who the copyright owner is, locating the copyright owner, and obtaining permission for intended use.
Edmund Pellegrino, MD, (June 22, 1920 - June 13, 2013) was Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University and founding director of the Center for Clinical Bioethics. He served as Chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, John Carroll Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics, and director of both the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and the Center for the Advanced Study of Ethics at Georgetown University. Raised in Brooklyn, NY, he received his BS degree from St. John’s University and his MD from New York University. He served residencies in medicine at Bellevue, Goldwater Memorial, and Homer Folks Tuberculosis Hospitals, following which he was a research fellow in renal medicine and physiology at New York University. During Dr. Pellegrino’s more than 65 years in medicine and university administration, he has been a departmental chairman, dean, vice chancellor and president.
Dr. Pellegrino authored over 600 published items in medical science, philosophy, and ethics, and served as a member of numerous editorial boards. He was the author or co-author of twenty-three books, and the founding editor of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Dr. Pellegrino was a Master of the American College of Physicians, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and recipient of 52 honorary doctorates in addition to other honors and awards including the Benjamin Rush Award from the American Medical Association, the Abraham Flexner Award of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Laetare Award of the University of Notre Dame.
Dr. Pellegrino’s research interests included the history and philosophy of medicine, professional ethics, and the physician-patient relationship.
42 Cubic Feet (in 95 boxes)
English
The collection contains the papers of Dr. Edmund D. Pellegrino, dating from 1943 to 2017. It primarily documents his contributions to the field of bioethics, particuarly as an educator and administrator at Georgetown University.
The collection is organized into fifteen series:
Series 1: Correspondence, 1974-2009
Series 2: Bibliographic/Writing Files, 1957-2013
Series 3: Courses and Conference Files, 1959-2012
Series 4: Kennedy Institute of Ethics Records, 1973-2012
Series 5: Center for the Advanced Study of Ethics Records, 1986-2019
Series 6: Center for Clinical Bioethics Records, circa 1990-2010
Series 7: Presentations, 1986-2012
Series 8: Board and Committee Files, 1959-2009
Series 9: Grants and Proposals, 1981-1983, 1995
Series 10: Interviews, 1981-2015
Series 11: Institute of Human Values in Medicine (IHVM), 1972-2012
Series 12: Biographical Materials and Memorabilia, 1948-2017
Series 13: Audiovisual, 1979-2004
Series 14: Photographs, circa 1930-2013
Series 15: Notebooks, 1893-2003
EDP began transferring administrative records to what would become the BRL Archives in the 1980s when he served as the Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. The bulk of the collection was transferred sometime prior to 2015. Additional accruals were received in 2021 and 2022 as transfers from the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics.
The collection is mix of records transferred to the BRL Archives from the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics as well as other items that were donated by the Pellegrino Family. The deed for the materials donated by the family was executed in 2020.
The accession records associated with this collection are: 006, 2015-001 through 2015-009, 2021-006, and 2022-013.
The collection was processed in 2021. It has been rehoused in archival-quality boxes. Original folders in good condition were retained, while other materials were rehoused in archival-quality folders as needed. Folder titles created by EDP and Marti Patchell were retained when possible. Some material was weeded from the collection during processing, including excessive duplicative items, extra copies of publications, and routine administrative records (travel invoices, receipts, etc.). The contents of computer disks found in the collection have not been examined.
An accrual of materials (2021-006) consisting of records related to the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, the Center for the Advanced Study of Ethics, and the Center for Clinical Bioethics were added to the collection in December 2021. The folders are held in boxes 13, 22, 75, 77-78, and BRL Shared Box 006.
Another accrual of materials (2022-013) was added to the collection in June 2022. These records are held in boxes 78-81.
Part of the Bioethics Research Library Archives Repository