Series 7 - Research files

1.12 m of textual and graphic records, publications
1593 digital files (931 MB)

This series contains files on individuals that Professor Bliss was interested in historically, such as Sir Albert Edward Kemp, businessman and politician, and men about whom he wrote biographies, including Sir Joseph Flavelle and Sir Frederick Banting, but particularly on the research that he undertook for his biographies of Sir William Osler, William Osler: A life in medicine (1999), and Harvey Cushing, Harvey Cushing: A life in surgery (2005).

While most of Professor Bliss’ research files and drafts of his manuscripts for The Discovery of Insulin and Banting: A Biography are held in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, this series contains extensive notes he took while researching those books and associated articles, along with some correspondence and a partial draft of one of the chapters in the insulin volume.

Regarding Sir William Osler, only selected research files have been retained. The files kept have one or more of the following: extensive notes on the folders themselves; significant marginalia or highlighting of articles and correspondence by Osler; and original material such correspondence, offprints of articles, drafts of addresses, and papers written by others about Osler’s life and career. The first part of this series has files arranged chronologically by the particular year of Osler’s life; they are followed by other files by name of person or organization and arranged almost entirely in the order kept by Professor Bliss. Following the files on Osler are Professor Bliss’ research files on Harvey Cushing. The same policy as for Osler regarding retention and arrangement has been followed, and the range of material in the files is similar.

All files are open, with the exception of the following:

• B2017-0007/001P(45)

This file has been restricted to protect the privacy of third parties. Please contact the University Archivist for access requests.