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The James Harvey Young papers (opening soon) will be an exciting new addition to the Emory University Archives holdings. The collection contains manuscripts, correspondence, research, teaching materials, and a multitude of records pertaining to Emory University committees and governance.
Dr. James Harvey Young was born in New York in 1915, though spent most of his childhood in Indiana and Illinois. He graduated from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he developed an interest in health fraud and quackery. After obtaining his Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois, he took a teaching position at Emory in 1941, where he would stay until his retirement in 1984. He served as a member on multiple committees, oversaw 37 doctoral dissertations (an Emory record), and served as head of the history department for nearly a decade, all while teaching and continuing his research on food and drug regulation and medical quackery. He continued to research, write, and speak publicly on issues surrounding health and consumer protection until his death in 2006.
James Harvey Young,
Emory University Archives
Some highlights of the collection are manuscripts and drafts of Dr. Young’s most celebrated works, The Toadstool Millionaires, The Medical Messiahs, and Pure Food, which served as the go-to reference book for the early history of the Food and Drug Administration in America. The James Harvey Young papers will also be an asset to social historians. Given the decades-long span of personal correspondence, it will be a valuable resource in examining the changing nature of personal and familial communication, both in terms of content, writing style, and the technologies implemented to stay connected. We are pleased to bring this content to MARBL researchers.
NOTE: The James Harvey Young papers are currently closed to researchers. Please contact marbl [at] emory [dot] edu for questions about the collection.
