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Biography

Henry Beeuwkes was born in Jamesburg, New Jersey. He received an AB from the Johns Hopkins University in 1902 and a MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1906. He did post graduate training at the Hudson St. Hospital in New York and finished at the New York Hospital in 1909. Beeuwkes entered the U.S. Army in 1909 becoming an instructor in radiography at the Army Medical School by 1912. During World War I, he was Inspector-General of the American Expeditionary Forces and the personal aide and physician to General John J. Pershing. In 1921 Beeuwkes served under Herbert Hoover as medical director of the American Relief Administration to Russia. He resigned from the Army Medical Corps in 1924 with the rank of colonel to direct the West African Yellow Fever Commission established by the Rockefeller Foundation. Beeuwkes was an assistant professor of medicine at the medical college of Cornell University studying tuberculosis from 1934 to 1939 when he was appointed as instructor tropical diseases at the school of aviation medicine, Randolph Field, Texas. He was commanding officer of the Valley Forge Hospital, Pennsylvania from 1942 to 1945. Beeuwkes was awarded the Hoff Memorial Medal, U.S. Army, 1910; the Mary Kingsley Medal of Liverpool: Officer of the French Legion of Honor; Grand Medaille Epedemie, France and the Distinguished Service Medal and Legion of Merit USA.

Scope and Content

The Henry Beeuwkes Collection consists of correspondence starting with his military service in 1909 and spanning his entire career as well as photographs, books and publications. Of particular interest is the scrapbook collection kept by Francis P. Hogan, secretary to Beeuwkes while in Russia and Africa.

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