Guide to the Henry deForest Papers,
1898-1947

Henry Pelouze deForest (Cornell University Class of 1884), born in 1864 in Fulton, New York, was a physician who practiced medicine in New York City. He was also Secretary of the Class of 1884, Cornell University; Secretary of the Class of 1890, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University; Librarian of the Cornell Club of New York; historian of the Alpha Mu Pi Omega Medical Fraternity; major and surgeon of the 13th Coast Artillery of the New York National Guard; Political Surgeon and Chief Medical Examiner for the Municipal Civil Service Commission of New York City; and President of the International Society for Personal Indentification. He invented the dactyloscope.

Correspondence and printed material relating to fingerprinting, the history of fingerprinting in the United States, crime, and the International Society for Personal Identification. Also includes correspondence with J. Edgar Hoover. Photographs (originally used as lantern slides in lectures) about the Bertillon method of criminal investigation, including a portrait of Alphonse Bertillon. Also, material pertaining to Columbia University and Cornell University; vacation journals and memorabilia; correspondence with and about Clinton Scollard; photographs of friends at Fulton, New York; clippings and correspondence concerning World War II, the Explorers' Club, and his medical practice. Also contains material concerning his pilgrimages to the shrines of St. Joseph du Mont-Royal, Our Lady of Lourdes, and St. Anne de Beaupre and a set of bookplates he designed for the Cornell Club library and other individuals and libraries. (3714)

Correspondence with classmates, other class secretaries, and Cornell University officials, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other printed material (59 volumes) concerning the activities and deaths of the members of the Class of 1884 and the "Early Eighties," a group of 1880-1889 class members; reunions of the Class of 1884, especially its 45th, 50th, 52nd, 55th, and 60th; the Class of 1884 fund; alumni trusteeship candidacies, annual Cornell dinners, and other events and business of interest to alumni; the Cornell Association of Class Secretaries; and "The Story of Cornell" bookplate, designed by De Forest and intended for use in a proposed historical department of the Cornell University Library to be known as "The Story of Cornell." Also, vital statistics (1 vol.) of class members. In addition to de Forest's correspondence with classmates, there is scattered correspondence with Carl L. Becker, John Henry Comstock, Simon Henry Gage, Hu Shih, and Howard A. Stevenson, editor of the Cornell Alumni News. (41-4-833, 41-4-1282)

Also one Cornell banner.

Includes collection #41-4-833 and 41-4-1282