Arnold Carl Klebs, 1870–1943: Tuberculosis Specialist, Historian and Bibliophile, and a Founder of the Medical Historical Library

Les Terrasses

Charles Sherrington, Harvey Cushing, William Henry Welch, Graham Moon (an explorer), and John F. Fulton at Les Terrasses, September 1931. Photograph by Dr. Richard U. Light.

B. W. Th. Nuyens wrote of the cottage at Les Terrasses: “It is Klebs’s library, his workroom and at the same time a laboratory for those who wish to do bibliographical research work. Inside you will see nothing but books and writing tables and wherever there is a space of the wall unoccupied there are photographs of friends or visitors who worked there, finding every aid to their study that a bibliographer may require.”

Klebs was known for his hospitality. On the opening day of the First International Neurological Congress held in 1931 in Berne, Klebs’ birthplace, Klebs hosted a grand dinner for his many friends. Among those in attendance were Cushing, John Fulton, William Henry Welch, and Sir Charles Sherrington. Fulton wrote of the dinner, "Arnold Klebs, through his warm affection for Harvey Cushing and his unusual capacity for bringing people together, had made it an event with few parallels in the history of such gatherings.” Fulton was an example of a member of the younger generation who became part of Klebs’ circle in the 1930s.

Albert Lücke, 1829-1894. Mohr von Bern: Ein Schattenspiel. Reprint of 1868 ed. Bern: A. Francke A.G., 1931.

Klebs had reprinted in a much smaller format Professor Albert Lücke’s Der Mohr von Bern to be given to his guests at the dinner he hosted at the First International Neurological Congress. The silhouettes are caricatures of the members of the Berne medical faculty of 1868, including Edwin Klebs. The Medical Historical Library owns a very rare copy of the original 1868 book.

This photograph was taken at the First International Neurological Congress in Berne in 1931.

This photograph, taken by Dr. Richard U. Light, was also from the Neurological Congress.

New Year Card drawn by Klebs and sent to his daughter, Sarah, 1928.

Library Windows at Les Terrasses Looking East, 1928

Harriet Klebs in the library at Les Terrasses, August 1932

Harriet and Arnold Klebs, late 1930s

Klebs had at Les Terrases two wooden boards for visitors to sign their names. They are now hanging at the entrance to Historical Library office. In this photograph, one can see the prominent signature of Karl Sudhoff.

Leona Baumgartner and John F. Fulton. A Bibliography of the Poem Syphilis sive morbus gallicus by Girolamo Fracastoro of Verona. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1935.

Klebs became close friends and correspondents of John F. Fulton (1899-1960) and, perhaps more surprisingly, of Leona Baumgartner (1902-1991), a female Yale M.D., Ph.D. Both were a generation younger than Klebs. Klebs wrote the introduction to Baumgartner and Fulton’s bibliography of Girolamo Fracastoro’s poem Syphilis, sive morbus gallicus [Syphilis, or the French Disease] which first appeared in 1530 and gave the disease, first encountered in Europe in the 1490s, its name. This classic poem appeared in many languages and editions which were detailed in the bibliography, dedicated “To Arnold C. Klebs of Nyon, Physician, Bibliographer and Erudite Student of Fracastoro.” Baumgartner, who later became head of the New York City Department of Health, wrote two substantial articles on Klebs after he died.

Fulton, a resident under Harvey Cushing in 1927-28, had become Sterling Professor of Physiology at Yale in 1930. Like Cushing and Klebs, he was a devoted historian, bibliographer, and bibliophile.

The image is taken from the drawing of Klebs by Oscar Lazar that hangs to the right of the entrance to the Historical Library.

Klebs took this famous portrait of Cushing on the Axenstrasse, along the rocky shores of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1929. Cushing sent signed copies to a large number of his students and friends. The inscription of this copy reads: “Richard U. Light via A.C.K. [Klebs] from Harvey Cushing.” Light worked under Cushing at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.

Klebs pasted this delightful photograph of friendship in this scrapbook devoted to Cushing. The letter from Cushing reads: “Could I only have you, in fact, instead of pictorially, so looking over my shoulder in future time I might be inspired to do something worthwhile. Affectionately H.C.”