New York Hospital, Bicentennial Committee Records

The plans to celebrate the New York Hospital's two hundredth anniversary in 1971 began in 1963 when the Board of Governors formed the Ad Hoc History Committee to look into publishing a bicentennial history of the hospital. They succeeded in May 1965 in hiring Eric Larrabee, a noted magazine editor, author, and educator to write this history, which was eventually entitled "The Benevolent and Necessary Institution." A Bicentennial Committee was not formed, however, until May 1967. It consisted of eleven New York Hospital physicians and administrators under the chairmanship of Dr. Henry N. Pratt, director of the hospital from 1948 to 1966. This committee was reorganized in September 1968 with the addition of six members of the Board of Governors and two Co-Chairmen, Board member Stanley de J. Osborne and Dr. Pratt. In addition, numerous subcommittees were established to plan specific aspects of the bicentennial. These included subcommittees on Logistics, Employee Activities, the Colloquium, and the Trinity Church ceremony. To coordinate overall bicentennial planning a public relations specialist, George B. Eager, was hired in January 1969. For reasons that are not clear, Peter Model whose services were retained for the remainder of the anniversary year replaced George Eager in March 1971. The bicentennial celebration was inaugurated on May 16, 1971 by a special service at Trinity Church commemorating the speech made by Dr. Samuel Bard in 1769, in an earlier Trinity Church, calling for the establishment of "A Public Hospital for the Reception of the Poor Sick." This became New York Hospital. The ceremony featured a reenactment of Bard’s speech followed by a keynote address delivered by Kingman Brewster, President of Yale University. The other major bicentennial observance was a two-day (May 17-18) colloquium on "The Future Role of the University-Based Metropolitan Medical Centers" held at Rockefeller University's Caspary Auditorium. The colloquium was organized by Dr. Walsh McDermott and featured such luminaries as David Rogers, Rene Dubos, and Vernon Jordan. The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation published its proceedings in 1972. Other bicentennial events included a Block Party for Hospital employees; the issuance by the U. S. Postal Service of a postcard featuring New York Hospital to commemorate "America's Hospitals," and a WNBC-TV documentary film of the hospital entitled "No Less Than Life."