Theodore J. Curphey papers

This collection contains the papers of Dr. Theodore J. Curphey (1897-1986), who served as the first medical examiner-coroner of Los Angeles County from 1957 to 1967. The chief topics of the Curphey papers are: his work as Los Angeles County Medical Examiner- Coroner, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Battered Child Syndrome, air pollution, smoking and smog, aircraft accidents, suicide and suicide prevention, drug addiction and overdose, causes of death, homicides, asphyxia, autopsy, drowning, forensic pathology, forensic science, oral contraceptives, and violent deaths. The collection contains several boxes of glass lantern slides Curphey created for talks that he would give to other physicians.

Prior to cataloging, most of the papers were stored in manila file folders with subject headings written in Curphey's handwriting. The current organizational structure of the collection for the most part replicates the classification system of Curphey's folders. In most cases, the contents of Curphey's folders were transferred in the order and under the conditions in which they were found. When appropriate and possible, the titles and sequence of Curphey's folders were retained. The original sequence of folders was not retained in those instances where no organizational schema seemed apparent, or when larger thematic groupings seemed preferable. For instance, all of Curphey's papers on air pollution and smoking, suicide, the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, battered child syndrome, and aviation accident investigations have been grouped together within the collection. While the contents of the folders on each of these topics generally replicate the contents of Curphey's individual folders, the folders themselves have been consolidated for organizational purposes and ease of access.

Notable participants include: author Erle Stanley Gardner, medical examiner Thomas T. Noguchi and psychologist Edwin S. Shneidman as well as the following organizations American Association of Suicidology, American Board of Pathology, American Medical Association, American Society of Clinical Pathologists, California's Bureau of Maternal and Child Health, Theodore J. Curphey Papers - Finding Aid - 5 California's Department of Public Health, California Medical Association, the Institute for Studies of Destructive Behaviors and the Suicide Prevention Center, Los Angeles County Office of Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, and Dept. of Public Health, Los Angeles County Medical Association, National Institute of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, and the United States Dept. of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration.