MS 100 Abramovitz Medical Papers

Our regular blog readers may remember that back in June we posted about Dr. Morris Abramovitz.   You can revisit that post here.  We thought it would be fitting to present the finding aid of the archives portion of the collection as well.  One of the amazing things about this donation is the scope — essentially the entire doctor’s office.  So often archives and photographs and collections come in bits and pieces – one image of a doctor’s office, one medical book, one pair of eyeglasses.  We can learn from these individual items, but we can learn more when we have them in combination.

 Abramovitz Medical Papers, n.d., 1901 – 1950

 MS 100

 The Jewish Museum of Maryland

ACCESS AND PROVENANCE

The Abramovitz Medical Papers were donated to the Jewish Museum of Maryland by Amy Abramovitz Kahn, Trustee for the Leonard J. Abramovitz Trust in 2001 as accession 2001.26. This gift was made in memory of Leonard J. Abramovitz, MD and Jeanne D. Abramovitz by their children, Amy Abramovitz Kahn, Lois Abramovitz, Debby Abramovitz, Janet Abromovitz and David Abramovitz. The collection was processed in September 2002 by Neil Barclay.

Access to the collection is unrestricted and is available to researchers at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the Jewish Museum of Maryland before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library’s usual procedures.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Dr. Morris Abramovitz was born on November 14, 1879, near Kosvo, Lithuania.  An Orthodox Jew, Morris came to the United States in 1901 on a Hamburg Steam Liner.  Morris graduated from the University of Maryland Medical School in 1906 then practiced medicine on East Baltimore Street for forty-five years.  During his career he invented a medical apparatus that withdrew blood from patients.

Dr. Abramovitz spoke seventeen different languages, and was a gifted violinist.  In 1911, Morris’s wife Pauline Wallerstein Abramovitz gave birth to their oldest son, Leonard.  Leonard Abramovitz followed in his father’s footsteps by graduating from the University of Maryland Medical School in 1934.  From 1934 until the start of World War II, Leonard practiced medicine with his father.  Leonard served as a major in the U.S. army.  Morris Abromovitz died in 1951.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The Abramovitz Medical Papers contain mostly medical documents used at Leonard’s and Morris’s medical offices.  Some of these documents include fragile office reference books.  Additionally, the collection contains notes from the medical schools of John Hopkins University and the University of Maryland.  The most unique document in the entire collection is the Hamburg Steam Liner ticket.  This is the actual ticket that Morris Abramovitz used when he traveled to America from Lithuania in 1901 at the age of 22.