Contents


Collection Overview

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Search Terms

Series 1: The Spoken Word, ca. 1970-1971

Series 2: Other Speeches and Writings, 1960-1970

Calvin H. Plimpton (AC 1939) Speeches, 1960-1971

Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Sarang Gopalakrishnan, Peter Nelson.

Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

© 2003

Collection Overview

Creator: Plimpton, Calvin Hastings, 1918-
Title: Plimpton Speeches
Dates: 1960-1971
Abstract: Physician and former Amherst president. Collection contains proofs of The Spoken Word, a collection of his speeches; and also includes other speeches and articles by Plimpton.
Extent: 1 archives box(0.5 linear ft.)
Language: English.

Biographical Note

Calvin Hastings Plimpton, physician and educator, was born in Boston on October 7, 1918. He attended Philips Exeter Academy; Amherst (Class of 1939); Harvard (MD 1943, MA 1947); and Columbia (MSD, 1951). Between 1943 and 1945 he served at the 83rd Field Hospital of the 3rd Army. Later, he worked at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1950 to 1957, and taught medicine at the American University in Beirut from 1957 to 1959. Plimpton was appointed President of Amherst College in 1960. As president, he introduced the first female professors to the college, helped to found Hampshire College, and guided Amherst through the troubles of the 1960s. He resigned in 1971 to return to medicine. From 1971, he worked at the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, as President (until 1979) and as Professor of Medicine (until 1983). In 1983, after the assassination of President Malcolm Kerr of the American University in Beirut, Plimpton took charge of the university, which he led until 1990. He has been awarded honorary degrees by several institutions, including Williams, Wesleyan, Amherst, Trinity and the American International College. Plimpton married Ruth Talbot in 1941, and had four children with her.

Plimpton's speeches delivered as president of Amherst College were collected and published as The Spoken Word (1981).

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

Galley proofs and typescripts of the book The Spoken Word: Calvin Hastings Plimpton, President, Amherst College 1960-1971, a collection of speeches given during his Presidency; also, a collection of Plimpton's other speeches and articles written in the period 1960-1970.

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Search Terms

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into two series:

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Series 1: The Spoken Word, ca. 1970-1971


Box



1
Galley proofs of The Spoken Word 1970 Dec

1
Corrected typescript of The Spoken Word n.d.

Series 2: Other Speeches and Writings, 1960-1970



1960-1961

Box

Folder

1 2
Davis Dinner 1960 Mar 18


Harvard Medical School Alumni Association: "Triskaidekaphobia, or Why Be Thirteen" 1960 May 27


Princeton University: "Humanity and Medicine" 1960 Jun 17-18


Johnson Chapel Talk 1960 Oct 6


Commencement Address, Wesleyan University: "The Lamentable Decline in Self-Reliance" 1961 Jun 4


Remarks to the Graduating Class 1961 Jun 11


Convocation: "Where, Why and How" 1961 Sep 24


(occasion not identified) "Why the Small Independent Liberal Arts College - And Why Amherst?" 1961 Oct 19


Connecticut Valley Branch of AAUW at Mount Holyoke College: "Read and Write, Black and White" 1961 Nov 6


Editorial in Journal of the American Medical Association vol. 178 no. 6 pp. 655-656. "Education for Medicine and, Yea, for Life" 1961 Nov 11


Dedication of the Health Center, Harvard University: "The Advantages of Illness, the Benefits from Disease" 1961 Dec 2


Johnson Chapel Assembly: "And So On" 1961 Dec 14


1962-1963

Box

Folder

1 3
Speech at Rockford College: "Gaposis" 1962 Feb 23


Davis Dinner: "You Come Too" 1962 Mar 16


Johnson Chapel Talk 1962 Apr 9


Boston Alumni: "Biochemistry of, not at, Amherst College" 1962 Apr 11


Johnson Chapel Talk 1962 May 15


Convocation: "Caring at Amherst, and the Enemy Within" 1962 Sep 24


Johnson Chapel Talk 1962 Sep 27


DKE Initiation Banquet: "Freedom not to Join" 1962 Nov 16


Amherst Faculty Club meeting: "Lost or Found" 1962 Dec 8


Robert Frost Memorial Service: "Reflections" 1963 Feb 17


Alumni Fund Agents "Transformation by Caring" 1963 Mar 1


Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, second series, vol. 39 no. 4 pp. 205-213: "Medicine: a Training or an Education?" 1963 Apr


Amherst Capital Program Leadership Weekend: "Learning to Care" 1963 May 3-4


Guest Column, Cape Cod Standard Times: "Slightly Salty" 1963 Oct 15


Johnson Chapel Talk: "Birth of Memory" 1963 Oct 22


"This Special Convocation" n.d.


"The Passing of J.F. Kennedy" 1963 Nov 22


"My Fair Lady" 1963 Nov 26


1964-1966

Box

Folder

1 4
University of Kentucky Medical School Graduation (untitled) 1964 May 18


"Amherst Comes to Town" (occasion not specified) 1964 Sep-Oct


Johnson Chapel Talk 1964 Nov 2


Assembly Talk 1964 Dec 8


Memorial Service for Alexander Meiklejohn, Washington D.C. 1965 Jan 15


Assembly talk: "Easy in Harness" 1965 Mar 29


Commencement Address, American International College: "The Uses of Stress in Student Life and Student-Faculty Relations" 1965 Jun 6


Assembly: "The Relationships with the Gentler Sex" 1965 Sep 27


Robert Frost Library Dedication 1965 Oct 24


Assembly Talk: "Hours for Ladies and Communication" 1965 Dec 14


Assembly Talk: "To Change or to be Changed" 1966 Apr 4


Opening Convocation - Johnson Chapel 1966 Sep 13


New York Personnel Management 1966 Oct 17


1967-1970

Box

Folder

1 5
Commencement Charge to Seniors 1967 Jun 2


Opening Convocation, Johnson Chapel 1967 Sep 12


Layman's Sunday Sermon, 2nd Congregational Church, Holyoke: "Is Man Still Relevant?" 1967 Oct 8


Commencement Charge to Seniors 1968 Jun 7


Science Center Dedication 1968 Nov 22


Faculty Club Speech 1969 Mar 11


"Who put the LSD in the DNA?" Leon E. Sample Lecture, presented at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, reprinted in the American Journal of Surgery vol. 119, May 1970 1969 May 9


Commencement Charge to Seniors 1969 Jun 6


Memorial Service for "Red" Richardson 1969 Oct 26


Albany Medical College: "The Campus Disorders as Seen by an Administration" 1969 Oct 30


Remarks at Opening of Medical Center, American University of Beirut 1970 Jun 26


Opening Convocation 1970 Sep 16