Phipps Family History: The Henry Phipps Institute

The holiday season has long been a time for year-end charitable donations. In the early 20th century, industrial philanthropists like Henry Phipps, Jr. recognized their social responsibility to address health and welfare crises in their communities. 

In December 1909, newspapers throughout the US reported on a gift from Henry Phipps, Jr. to the University of Pennsylvania to expand its treatment and research programs for tuberculosis. The $500,000 donation (over $15,000,000 today), was one of multiple gifts Henry gave to establish the first institution in the US created for the eradication of a single disease (above). 

TB was the leading cause of death in the United States in the 19th and early 2oth centuries and one of the most dreaded diseases known to mankind. Henry personally saw the tragic effects of TB in his own family. The Henry Phipps Institute became a leader in the diagnosis of the disease as investigators showed that a non-symptomatic patient may have TB with the only indication of its presence being an x-ray. Henry’s 1909 gift also went to build and fund a hospital that would soon pioneer the fight against TB within the African-American community. The hospital would innovate the treatment of TB by training black nurses and doctors to cure those afflicted with TB in the underserved African-American community in Philadelphia. Its work would soon be duplicated nationwide. 

Upon Henry’s death, most of his personal archives came into the possession on his son Jay and in turn Old Westbury Gardens. With further research of the Henry Phipps’s archives, we hope to find more materials that document the pioneering charitable works of Henry Phipps Jr. 

~Paul Hunchak, Director of Public Programs and Visitor Services