Armstrong – Table of Contents

Brandeis University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Waltham, Massachusetts
(11). Dr. Benison was the author of “Tom Rivers”, the oral biography of Dr. Thomas M.
Rivers, Armstrong’s medical school classmate at Johns Hopkins (see previous chapters
and notes). Dr. Benison wrote as follows: “Dear Dr. Armstrong, I want to thank you for
your thoughtfulness in sending me off your papers relating to poliomyelitis. They will be
very helpful to me in my work. Receipt of these papers reemphasizes to me the
importance of preserving your correspondence, laboratory protocols, diaries, etc. for the
history of contemporary science and medicine.
“When last I was in Washington I discussed this with Dr. Martin Cummings and
Dr. John Blake of the National Library of Medicine. They agreed with me that the
National Library of Medicine could begin its Manuscript Collecting program in no better
way than by preserving your correspondence, diaries and protocols. I know that many
scientists have a tendency to denigrate the importance of such materials and all too often
destroy them. As an historian of medicine and science I can unequivocally say that the
very growth and development of my discipline is predicated on the preservation of just
such materials. I hope that you will in the future take steps to preserve and store your
correspondence etc. with the National Library of Medicine. Again let me thank you for
your kindness to me. Sincerely”. Fortunately, much, but not the total amount of such
material (Armstrong’s), has been salvaged.
In Armstrong’s twilight years he still did not fade into obscurity. He was featured
in The Surgeon General’s Bulletin of the U. S. Department of H. E. W.
November/December 1964. Surgeon General Luther L. Terry, noted initially for his
attack (report) on tobacco use and abuse, appeared in the Bulletin greeting Armstrong as