Finding aid for the George Washington Crile Papers

Biography of George Washington Crile

George W. Crile (1864-1943) was an internationally-known surgeon and co-founder of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a respected medical scientist whose research and writings covered such diverse topics as surgical shock, glandular function, blood pressure and transfusion, shell shock, and the effects of wartime surgery.

A native Ohioan, George Crile was born and raised on a Coshocton County farm. After a brief career as a schoolteacher, he attended Wooster Medical College in Cleveland, Ohio, graduating in 1887. After further medical training in Europe, he returned to Cleveland and taught surgery and other medical topics at Wooster Medical College and its successor, Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Crile first became interested in wartime surgery in 1898 when he served in the Army Medical Crops during the Spanish-American War. In 1911, he became a visiting surgeon at Cleveland's Lakeside Hospital, and in 1913 he helped found the American College of Surgeons.

During World War I, Crile served in several military positions. In 1915 he was surgical director at the American Ambulance Hospital in Neuilly, France. In 1917 he organized and trained medical personnel from Lakeside Hospital, who then served at United States Army Base Hospital No. 4 in Rouen, France. Crile was discharged as a full colonel in January 1919, and retained his service commission for the rest of his life.

After World War I, Crile resumed his duties at Lakeside Hospital and Western Reserve University. In 1921, together with doctors William E. Lower, Frank E. Bunts, and John Phillips, he founded the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, which was modeled after the Mayo Clinic of Rochester, Minnesota. He retired from Lakeside Hospital in 1924 in order to devote more time to the new Clinic, where he served as the President of the Foundation (1921-1940) and as a Trustee (1921-1936). A hospital was opened in 1924. From the beginning, education and research were emphasized at the Clinic. On May 15, 1929, a fire occurred at the Cleveland Clinic. Lethal gases released by burning x-ray film killed 123 patients and staff and injured 92. In the aftermath of this tragedy, new guidelines for the handling and storage of x-ray film were adopted nationally., local police and fire personnel were provided with gas masks, and safety regulations concerning poison gases were more stringently enforced. The Cleveland Clinic made a slow but sure recovery from the 1929 fire and the effects of the Depression, and eventually became known internationally as a premier research and medical institution.

Dr. Crile conducted research and published many books and papers on a wide range of medical topics. During his service in World War I, Crile conducted research on shell shock, the treatment of war wounds, and the administration of military hospitals. In addition to his earlier work on surgical shock and other aspects of surgery, he published books and articles concerned with thyroid diseases and their treatment, the role of the adrenal glands, life as a form of electrical energy, and the relationship between hypertension and the modern lifestyle. In 1906, he performed the first successful blood transfusion on a human. Other medical and surgical procedures he perfected included an operation for goiter, a form of thyroid disease, and the use of anesthetics.

Dr. Crile received numerous honors and awards throughout his life. He was twice awarded the Cartwright Prize of Columbia University and received from the United States government the Distinguished Service Cross for his service in World War I. In addition to his role in the founding of the American College of Surgeons, he served that organization in a number of executive positions throughout his life. He also was an officer of the American Medical Association and the American Surgical Association, a member of the Royal Academy of Surgeons, and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine. At the start of World War II, he was appointed an honorary consultant to the Medical Department of the United States Navy. He and his wife, Grace McBride Crile (1869-1948), whom he married in 1900, traveled extensively. Many of their trips were research expeditions concerned with natural history and biomedical issues. Dr. Crile died in Cleveland on January 7, 1943, survived by his wife and four children (Elisabeth, George Jr. [Barney], Robert, and Margaret).

Scope and Content

The George Washington Crile Papers, 1888-1946 and undated, consist of original manuscript diaries, typewritten transcripts and excerpts of diaries, correspondence, manuscripts and published editions of scholarly papers, articles, speeches, notes, memoranda, medical records, account books, invoices, receipts, photographs, postcards, scrapbooks, pamphlets, programs, passports, blueprints, newspaper clippings, and other memorabilia.

Researchers will find the Crile Papers interesting in a variety of ways. A particularly rich resource for the study of World War I, they document the medical practices and army life of that era (Series II, III, and IV). Dr. Crile's lesser involvement in the Spanish-American War and World War II is also represented in the form of journals and clippings (Series II and III). Early medical and surgical practice and research, as performed by Dr. Crile and his contemporaries during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, is another important component of the collection, and can be found both in anecdotal form (Series I) and in the clippings and scrapbooks he used to keep track of developments in the field (Series III and VI). The founding, development, and growth of the Cleveland Clinic is also well documented (Series III), including the disastrous fire of 1929 (Series V). Additionally, Dr. Crile's activities on behalf of a number of Cleveland organizations can be traced through the collection (Series II and III), as in his expeditions to Africa and elsewhere which contributed to the holdings of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

In the course of his wide-ranging work, Dr. Crile became acquainted with Cleveland notables such as Newton D. Baker, Myron T. Herrick, and Charles F. Thwing, as well as with international medical personalities including Harvey Cushing, Charles Mayo, Lord Berkely Moynihan, Nicholas Senn, and Hans Zinsser. All of these and numerous others are represented in Crile's correspondence (Series I, II, and III). Finally, the significant and active role that Grace Crile played in her husband's life is evident, and her own experience is well documented by her diaries, correspondence, and memoranda (Series II and III). Notes taken by Mrs. Crile for the compilation of her husband's autobiography, a project she zealously began before his death, can be found throughout the collection.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

While there are no access restrictions on this collection, researchers will be asked to use the microfilm of this collection.

The researcher should also consult MS 3473 U. S. Army Expeditionary Forces Base Hospital No. 4 Reunion Records; MS 3692 Amy F. Rowland Papers; MS 4585 Donald McBride Family Papers; PG 15 George Washington Crile Family Photographs; and PG 108 George Washington Crile World War I Photographs.

All photographs have been removed to PG 15 George Washington Crile Family Photographs and PG 108 George W. Crile World War I Photographs.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 2806 George Washington Crile Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Gift of the Crile Family in 1948.

Processing Information

Processed by John Large, Jr. in 1963; reprocessed for microfilming by Deborah Shell and Todd Michney in 1994. With the exception of some scattered World War I and miscellaneous materials, the series designated in 1963 have been maintained. For researchers with citations based on the 1963 arrangement, a container/folder conversion chart is available at the Reference Desk of the WRHS Research Library.

Other Finding Aid

A detailed chronology of key events in the life of George Washington Crile is available at the Reference Desk of the WRHS Research Library.

Detailed Description of The Collection