The Lawrence F. Flick papers are ready for research; they document both Dr. Flick’s personal and professional life.
Dr. Lawrence F. Flick was born in Cambria County, Pennsylvania in 1856 and earned a medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in 1879. The young doctor was only partially recovered from his initial contraction of tuberculosis when he began practicing medicine. After Flick’s first year in practice, his tuberculosis symptoms returned and prompted a need for full rest and recovery—he headed to California. With the aid of “oranges, milk, fresh air, and sunshine”, Dr. Flick recovered his health and returned to Philadelphia where he focused his career on treating and preventing tuberculosis (Dr. L. Flick Buried with Requiem Mass at Old St. Mary’s, 1938).
Dr. Flick founded the Free Hospital for Poor Consumptives and became president of White Haven Sanatorium, a position he held from 1901-1935. It was this work that attracted Henry Phipps’s attention to Dr. Flick. Together, philanthropist Henry Phipps and Dr. Flick established the Henry Phipps Institute for the Study, Prevention, and Treatment of Tuberculosis. Dr. Flick served as the Phipps Institute’s president from 1903 until 1910 when it was acquired by the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to treating patients and conducting research, Dr. Flick was involved with advocacy efforts through the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, International Congress on Tuberculosis, and National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis.
While processing Dr. Flick’s materials, it felt notable that Flick was not only heavily involved in efforts to treat and prevent tuberculosis but that he also enjoyed a closeness with his family and was involved with his community. Dr. Flick was a founding member of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia and the American Catholic Historical Association. Flick served as president of the American Catholic Historical Society from 1893-1896 and again from 1913-1914; he also served as the first president of the American Catholic Historical Association in 1919. Dr. Flick passed in July of 1938, and he is interred at Old St. Mary’s Church in Philadelphia alongside his wife Ella. Throughout the personal correspondence in the collection, Flick writes with his seven children and his brother. The correspondence sometimes contains outlines of his children’s hands that they cut out and autographed for him. His children’s school notebooks sit in the same collection as his medical notes and manuscript drafts showing future researchers not only Flick the medical practitioner but also Flick the father, the brother, and the author.
Access the finding aid for the Lawrence F. Flick Papers here
Items of interest in this collection include Flick’s medical instruments in a leather case and flyers for the prevention of tuberculosis in Pennsylvania featuring Billy Penn kneeling to scrub out tuberculosis from the state using a brush labeled education.
Citations for this blog post: (1938, July 15). Dr. L. Flick Buried with Requiem Mass at Old St. Mary’s. Philadelphia Catholic Standard and Times, pp. 1 & 9.
Blog post written by: Abigail Boyer