Rufus Ivory Cole (1872-1966) was the first Director of the Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (1908-1937). A pioneer in the development of clinical research, he discovered the first effective therapy for lobar pneumonia.

After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1896, Cole attended Johns Hopkins University Medical School. It was here that he was influenced by the leaders of American medicine, including William H. Welch, William Osler, and Llwellyns F. Barker. It was their belief that research laboratories should be adjacent to hospital wards as to encourage staff to engage in clinical work.

From 1901-1909, Dr. Cole was at Johns Hopkins Hospital, first as a resident and later as the first head of the biological laboratory. His research, at that time, was typhoid fever. Also, during this time, 1903-1904, he studied at the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases in Berlin.

In 1908, Dr. Cole married his childhood friend, Annie Hegeler, and was appointed the first director of the newly established Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. While awaiting it's opening, he studied abroard observing many British and European hospitals.

At the Hospital's opening in 1910, lobar pneumonia was one of the five diseases selected as a focus of it's research program. So critical was a therapy for this disease needed that Dr. Cole made it his own research priority. With Alphonse Dochez, they discovered different strains of pnuemococcus. By the end of 1912, they had developed a serum to treat Type I pneumococcus and a method for testing different types of the bacterium.

During World War I, at the request of the United States Army, he investigated the outbreak of the disease among American troops, making pioneering observations on the epidemiology of pneumonia, and its cause for infection in hemolytic streptococci as a complication of measles.

One of his greatest contributions to American medicine was the training of the hospital staff. His vision, as he learned at Johns Hopkins, was to make the Hospital a place where laboratory research and patient care were integrated. Dozens of clinicians moved on to other posts helping to transform medicine into a scientific, academic discipline.

Cole was a leading member of numerous medical organizations, including the American Association of Immunologists (President, 1920-1921), the National Academy of Sciences, and the Association of American Physicians (President, 1931). His achievements were recognized as a recipient of the the Kober Medal (1938), the Academy Medal of the New York Academy of Medicine (1953) and the Kovalenko Medal (1966).

In his retirement, after 1937, Dr. Cole remained active on boards and committees, particularly working to improve nursing care in Mt. Kisco, New York. He also wrote a two volume scholarly work titled Human History: the 17th Century and the Stuart family (1959).

Dr. Cole passed away at the age of 94. The Cole's had three daughters, Camilla (Smidt), Elizabeth (Botzow), and Mary (Childs). His wife, Annie, died in 1951.

The Rufus Ivory Cole Papers (1885-1966) contain professional and personal correspondence, research and patient notes, administrative information on the beginning of the Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, documents related to numerous medical organizations, and class notebooks from Johns Hopkins University. Of particular note, are the clinical notes related to the study of pneumonia at the time of the 1918 epidemic. Contains personal correspondence with his wife, parents and siblings and his retirement interest in history.

Provenance

Presented by the Cole family, 1967, 1971, 1981. See in-house shelf list for additional accession numbers and dates.

Physiology, Biochemistry, and Biophysics Note

Scholars of physiology, biochemistry, or biophysics may find the following of interest:

• Association of American Physicians
• Harvey Society of New York
• Johns Hopkins Hospital
• Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer
• New York (City). Board of health
• New York (State). Department of Health
• New York Academy of Medicine
• Rockefeller Institute
• Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. Hospital

• Avery, Oswald T. (Oswald Theodore), 1877-1955
• Barker, Lewellys F. (Lewellys Franklin), 1867-1943
• Beaux, Cecilia, 1855-1942
• Cattell, James McKeen, 1860-1944
• Chesney, Alan M. (Alan Mason), 1888-1964
• Christian, Henry A. (Henry Arthur)
• Cohn, Alfred E. (Alfred Einstein), 1879-1957
• Cole, Annie Hegler
• Cole, Rufus Ivory, 1872-1966
• Corner, George Washington, 1889-1981
• Cushing, Harvey, 1869-1939
• Ehrlich, Paul, 1854-1915
• Evans, Herbert M. (Herbert McLean), 1882-1971
• Faber, Knud, 1862-1956
• Flexner, Abraham, 1866-1959
• Flexner, Simon, 1863-1946
• Fosdick, Harry Emerson, 1878-1969
• Fulton, John F. (John Farquhar), 1899-1960
• Gay, Frederick P. (Frederick Parker), 1874-1939
• Goodpasture, Ernest William, 1886-1960
• Greene, Jerome D.
• Herter, Christian Archibald, 1865-1910
• Keen, William W. (William Williams)
• Klebs, Arnold C. (Arnold Carl), 1870-1943
• Minot, George Richards, 1885-1950
• Moe, Henry Allen, 1894-1975
• Osler, William, Sir, 1849-1919
• Peabody, Francis Weld, 1881-1927
• Redi, Francesco, 1626-1698
• Reimann, Hobart A.
• Robinson, George Canby, 1878-
• Rockefeller, John D. (John Davison), 1874-1960
• Rosenwald, Julius, 1862-1932
• Rous, Peyton, 1879-1970
• Thayer, William Sydney, 1864-1
• Van Slyke, Donald Dexter, 1883-1971
• Welch, William Henry, 1850-1934
• Whipple, George Hoyt
• Williams, Linsly R. (Linsly Rudd), 1875-1934
• Winternitz, Milton Charles, 1885-1959

• American Medical Association
• Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714.
• Herbert S. Carter Memorial Fund
• Hospitals -- New York (State) -- Administration.
• Influenza -- Research
• Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919
• Interurban Clinical Club
• Johns Hopkins University
• Journal of Immunology
• Medical Brotherhood
• Medicine -- Research -- United States.
• National Academy of Sciences
• National Research Council
• New York Academy of Sciences
• Pneumonia
• Pneumonia, Pneumococcal
• Rockefeller Foundation