Rock, John C. personal and professional papers, 1918-1983. H MS c161

Rock, John C. personal and professional papers, 1918-1983. H MS c161

John Charles Rock (1890-1984), was the founder of the Rock Reproductive Study Center at the Free Hospital for Women in Brookline, Mass., and Clinical Professor of Gynecology at Harvard Medical School. Rock collaborated with colleague Gregory Pincus and Pincus's assistant Min-Chueh Chang, during the 1950s in the clinical trials and development of oral contraceptives, commonly known as the birth control pill. Rock is also credited with colleague Arthur Hertig and laboratory assistant Miriam F. Menkin for completing the earliest human in vitro fertilization experiments in the United States in 1944. As a fertility specialist, gynecologist, and medical educator, Rock, a Roman Catholic, gained notoriety for advocating the usage of birth control despite his religious beliefs. His research areas included fertility, early stages of contraception, human embryo development,in vitro fertilization, the freezing and preservation of sperm cells, and clinical disorders of human reproductive physiology.
Consists of Rock’s research records from his tenure as director of the Fertility and Endocrine Clinic at the Free Hospital for Women in Brookline, Mass., including research notebooks, correspondence, data, memoranda, research files, lantern slides, and patient records, including note cards, laboratory microscope slides, and photographs produced from his clinical activities. The collection also includes Rock's collaborative writings, reproductive health research notes, and correspondence with individuals involved in birth control research, including Katharine McCormick, and colleagues Gregory Pincus, Min-Chueh Chang, Celso-Ramon Garcia, Edris Rice-Wray regarding their work on the development of the birth control pill. Additional writings, lecture notes, film reels, and audio recordings produced from his reproductive health research address such topics as the development of the birth control pill, in vitro fertilization, sperm freezing for preservation, corpus luteum, and human embryo development. The collection also contains lantern slides, notes, and laboratory data resulting from Rock's collaboration with Arthur Hertig on in vitro fertilization and human embryo development research funded by the Carnegie Institute of Washington. Writings, notes, lantern slides, laboratory data and notebooks record Rock and labortory assistant Miriam Menkin's research on in-vitro fertilization, the development of oral contraceptives, and other aspects of human reproduction. Included are photographs of in vitro fertilization and charts of data on embryos.
Also contains Rock's lecture notes from his classes taught at Harvard Medical School, Rock's personal correspondence, and photographs of Rock. The collection also includes a small amount of Miriam Menkin's personal correspondence, scrapbooks, and publication files.