OSLER, WILLIAM. 1849-1919.


Autograph Letter Signed ("Wm Osler") to Frederick T. Gates discussing a prospective endowment following the 1907 fire at McGill, 3 pp, [May] 2nd, [1907], Toronto, minor tears at edges of folds, light creases, staple holes to upper margin. TO THE REVEREND FREDERICK T. GATES, KEY FINANCIAL ADVISOR TO THE ROCKEFELLERS, seeking $500,000 after a fire destroyed much of the McGill Medical Building on April 15, 1907. Gates read the second edition of Osler's Principles and Practice of Medicine in 1897, an experience that led him to encourage the Rockefellers to endow the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (1901) and the General Education Board (1903). Many of the pathological specimens that had been prepared by Osler a quarter-century earlier were destroyed in the fire. Osler's letter did not result in a Rockefeller grant, but Lord Strathcona contributed $450,000 that was combined with $360,000 from insurance to build a new building and support the faculty. Hanaway, Cruess and Darragh, McGill Medicine (Montreal, 2006) 2, pp 64-67. For the relationship between Gates, Osler, and the Rockefellers, see C. S. Bryan, "Mr. Gates's Summer Vacation: A Centennial Remembrance," Ann. Int. Med. 1997, vol 127, pp 148-153.