Biographical Note: Henry Morgenthau Fox was born in 1907 in New York in the family of Mortimer J. Fox, an architecht, a banker, and a painter and Helen Morgenthau, an author of many articles and books on horticulture. Henry M. Fox first studied philosophy in Harvard College, and then medicine in the John Hopkins Medical School. Inspired by the work of Adolf Meyer, chief of psychiatry at the Phipps Clinic, Fox became drawn to psychiatry. When the Second World War began, he joined the Hopkins unit in Australia and Philippines, where he became chief of psychiatry and a full colonel. Upon returning to Boston after his military service, he was invited to establish a new department of psychiatry at the Peter Ben Brigham Hospital, the unit he led until his retirement in 1972. Fox also was a full professor of psychiatry in Harvard since1970, always combining his teaching and research with the continuing dedication to his private patients.  He was an active member of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, a Chairman of the Education Committee and instructors of many seminars. Henry M. Fox died on December 23, 1987, in his Wellesley home, at the age of eighty.

Summary: This small collection consists of an original typescipt of “Thymergasia and Allied States” by Henry Fox and “Remarks on the PBBH Psychiatric Unit” by Sanford Gifford. Please note that other materials, including Henry Fox’s correspondence, papers, biography, and photographs are included in the Related BPSI Collections listed below.

Finding Aid for this collection is available here (viewing it requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).


Related BPSI Collections
Assorted Correspondence, 1872-1996
BPSI History Collections: Papers Not Presented, 1957-1979
Putnam Children’s Center Photographs, 1958-1966 (includes Henry Fox’s Photo, Putn 19)
Vertical File (includes Henry Fox’s Biography)

Related Sites
Psychiatric Casualties in a General Hospital Overseas: A Preliminary Survey of Recent Cases by Henry M. Fox and Nathan Schnapper. Am J Psychiatry 101:316-324, November 1944
Psychological Observations of Patients Undergoing Mitral Surgery: A Study of Stress by Henry M. Fox, Nicholas D. Rizzo, and Sanford Gifford. Psychosomatic Medicine 16:186-208 (1954)