Brief Overview of Collection, MC05

 

 

Name                           Spies Nutrition Clinic Collection

 

Dates                           1937-1967

 

Extent                         1.5 cubic feet

 

Historical Note           The Spies Nutrition Clinic was operated out of Birmingham’s Hillman Hospital by Dr. Tom D. Spies from 1936 until 1960.  Dr. Spies, a noted researcher from Cleveland, Ohio, had first been invited to Birmingham in 1935 by Dr. James S. McLester, physician-in-chief of the Hillman Hospital and then-president of the American Medical Association.  Dr. Spies’ treatment of pellagra sufferers was successful in Birmingham and he was persuaded to establish a clinic in the Hillman Hospital, the city's charity facility.  In 1945 Spies and six social workers, including Martha Hutchinson, began a project to determine the effects of daily supplements of milk on the growth and development of malnourished children.  This study, which was successfully completed in 1950, was done in cooperation with the American Dry Milk Institute.  After the four-year Medical College of Alabama was installed in the Jefferson and Hillman hospitals in 1945, Dr. Spies was made a visiting professor at the medical college.  Research continued in the clinic until the death of Dr. Spies in 1960.  He left no provisions for the continuation of his clinic and the clinic was closed soon after his death.

 

Scope & Contents      Includes correspondence, research case histories, news clippings, administrative and financial materials of the clinic, and reprints of research papers.

 

Arrangement              Organized into three discrete series: 1. Correspondence of Martha Hutchinson and Dr. William Niedermeier, 1945-1967; 2. Clinic Administrative Files, 1940-1950; 3. Printed Matter, 1937-1960.

 

Accession Number     M92-05

 

Provenance                 These materials were donated in the late 1980s by Dr. William Niedermeier and Martha Hutchinson to the Jefferson County Medical Society/UAB Health Sciences Archives.  In 1992 the materials were transferred from the disbanded health sciences archives to the new UAB Archives at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

 

Copyright                    Researchers should note that the University does not own copyrights to all the materials contained within this collection.

 

Finding aid                  Descriptive guide by William A. Harris available in repository.

 

Access Points             American Dry Milk Institute.

Dairy products in human nutrition.

Hillman Hospital (Birmingham, Ala.).

Hutchinson, Martha.

Jefferson-Hillman Hospital (Birmingham, Ala.).

Malnutrition.

Niedermeier, William,  d  b. 1923.

Nutrition  x  Research  x  Alabama.

Spies Nutrition Clinic (Birmingham, Ala.).

Spies, Tom Douglas,  d  1902-1960.

University of Alabama.  b  Medical College of Alabama.

Vitamins in human nutrition.

 

Document Types        Clippings.

Correspondence.

Manuscripts.

Notes.

Reports.

 

Location                      Manuscript Stacks

 

Related Series            PMC5, Spies Nutrition Clinic Photograph Collection

 

Physical Condition      Acid free folders and acid free boxes