The papers of Carey Pratt McCord represent only a fragment of what once must have been a larger body of papers and consequently document only a small portion of his varied and active career. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Personal; Correspondence; Speeches and lectures; Writings and related; Research files; Miscellaneous; and Photographs.
Carey Pratt McCord was born on September 25, 1886 in Bibb County, Alabama, the son of a Baptist minister. In 1907 he received a bachelor's degree from Howard College in Birmingham. He then came to Ann Arbor and studied medicine, earning a medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1912.
After graduating from Michigan, McCord began his professional career as a research physiologist in the laboratories of the Parke-Davis and Company in Detroit. His research at this time centered upon the functioning of glands during the body's fetal period.
After four years with Parke-Davis, McCord left the firm to enter a field of medicine which was just developing: occupational health. McCord's pathbreaking work led him to be labeled one of the "big five" pioneers in industrial and occupational health. He served as a consultant for numerous firms, including the Chrysler Corporation where he worked for 16 years. He published over 20 books and 3,000 articles. Much of this work was done as the director of the Industrial Health Conservancy Laboratories, an organization which specialized in research about toxicology. McCord headed the organization from 1919 until 1951.
In addition to his responsibilities as a researcher and an industrial consultant, McCord served in governmental and educational posts. He was director of Industrial Hygiene for Detroit's Department of Health from 1937 until 1940. He also served two years as director of the Michigan State Board of Health's Department of Industrial Health.
McCord was an associate professor of preventative medicine at the University of Cincinnati between 1920 and 1935. In 1937 he joined the faculty of the medical school at Wayne University in Detroit. In 1940 he retired from Wayne to join the faculty of the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. He continued to serve at Michigan as a lecturer and a consultant for thirty five years.
McCord retired from active work in 1976, returning to his home in Cincinnati, Ohio. He died October 14, 1979 in Appleton, Wisconsin.
