Felix Pinkus Family Collection

The Felix Pinkus Family Collection is composed of the papers of the dermatologist Felix Pinkus and his family members, especially his son Hermann, also a dermatologist. Major motifs of the collection are their dermatological work and professional interests and their shared artistic aptitudes. The collection comprises correspondence, photographs, published and unpublished writing, photograph albums and scrapbooks, notes and research, newspaper clippings and journal articles, educational and professional certificates and documentation, announcements and invitations, official documents and various other memorabilia.

Material on Felix and Hermann Pinkus's work in dermatology will be found in both Series I and II. Subseries 5 of Series I holds Felix Pinkus's professional papers while Subseries 4 of Series II holds Hermann's. Such documentation consists of research notes and sketches, photographs of dermatological conditions and professional writings, including Hermann Pinkus's dissertation on tissue culture, and conference materials. Some professional correspondence of Felix Pinkus will be found in Subseries 2 of Series I and includes letters related to his dismissal from the University of Berlin and loss of position at the Frauenkrankenhaus Reinickendorf in 1933. Both of these series also hold material of the Akademischer Verein für Naturwissenschaft und Medizin an der Universität Berlin (ANMV), a scientific and medical association to which they both belonged. Series III, which holds papers of family members other than Felix and Hermann Pinkus, contains some material on the professional work of Hermann's wife Hilde Hensel Pinkus, who like most members of the family was a physician.

Both Felix and Hermann Pinkus produced a number of sketches and other artwork; much of the artwork in the collection displays their knowledge of anatomy. Felix Pinkus's art, found in Subseries 4 of Series I, holds a number of drawings, paintings and especially sketches of humans and animals, including both depictions of individuals or animals he observed as well as drawings of ancient art from museums that featured such subjects. Hermann Pinkus's drawings, in Subseries 3 of Series II, features a number of drawings of insects. Felix Pinkus in addition produced a number of scrapbooks to document journeys he took, several of which utilize collage-like pages assembled with a mixture of drawings, handwritten descriptions, photographs, newspaper clippings and small publications or memorabilia. These scrapbooks, together with simpler photo albums and collections of memorabilia, form Subseries 3 of Series I.

Prominent events in the lives of family members, and especially in the lives of Hermann and Hilde Pinkus, will be found in the correspondence of this series. Much of the collection's correspondence consists of letters between family members. Felix Pinkus's correspondence is located in Subseries 2 of Series I; his most prolific correspondent is his son, writing after his immigration to Michigan and giving details of his new life in America. Felix Pinkus's other correspondents include other family members such as his daughter Luise and his brothers, many professional letters on a number of topics, including the events of the 1930s in Germany, as well as a number of letters from close friends. Most of Hermann Pinkus's correspondence dates after the war, with many friends but also including letters from his sister and a small amount of professional and official correspondence. A few letters of Hilde Pinkus are located in Series III, with her other papers; these encompass a number of letters from patients during the 1930s. Further material on the Pinkus family includes their many family photographs, located in Series IV. Some details on the family can be found in some of Felix and Hermann Pinkus's non-fiction creative writing, in Subseries 4 of Series I and Subseries 3 of Series II respectively.