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Clifton O. Dummett papers

 Collection
Identifier: 925-001

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Scope and Contents

This collection contains the papers of Dr. Clifton O. Dummett (1919-2011), an African-American pioneer in the field of dentistry and a professor at the University of Southern California. Much of the collection consists of publications of professional organizations reflecting the research, career, and community involvement of Dummett from the 1940s to the early 2000s. Publication types include professional journals, books, rosters, directories, reports, and conference programs, which are associated with Dummett in his role as an author, editor, speaker, or cited source. In addition, the collection also includes awards, certificates, and degrees awarded to Dummett; books written by Dummett (and often co-authored with his wife, Lois Dummett); photographs and slides; audiovisual materials; and yearbooks. There is also a small set of papers which contain some professional correspondence and administrative documents chiefly dating from the 1980s-1990s. There are also some items related to his time as chief of periodontics and oral medicine at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, in the late 1950s.

Dates

  • Creation: 1941 - 2013

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Advance notice required for access.

Rights Statement for Archival Description

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Wilson Dental Library. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Wilson Dental Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Biographical / Historical

Dr. Clifton Orrin Dummett (1919-2011) was an African-American pioneer in the field of dentistry and a professor at the University of Southern California. He was born in British Guyana in 1919 and studied at Howard University before receiving a B.S. from Roosevelt University in Chicago. Dummett went on to receive a D.D.S. from Northwestern University in 1941, an M.Sc.D. in periodontics from Northwestern University, and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Michigan in 1947. He was the first African-American dentist to receive a master's degree in public health.

At twenty-eight, Dummett was appointed dean of the Meharry College of Dentistry, becoming the youngest dental dean in the United States. He worked at Meharry until 1949, when he because chief of dental service at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama. In 1954, Dummett was commissioned as a Major in the U.S. Air Force Dental Corps and granted a leave of absence from the VA Hospital. He was assigned to active duty at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, as chief of periodontics and oral medicine. In 1966, Dummett was appointed chief of dental service at the VA Research Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, as well as an associate professor of periodontics at Northwestern University.

That same year, he was granted a leave of absence from the VA to become Dental Director of the South Central Multipurpose Health Services Center in Los Angeles, where he also became a professor of dentistry at the University of Southern California. He retired from the USC School of Dentistry as a professor emeritus in 1989.

Dummett served as president of the International Association of Dental Research, the American Association of Dental Editors, the American Academy of the History of Dentistry, and the Los Angeles Dental Society. Dummett was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine in 1972.

Dummett was a prolific writer and authored over 300 articles. Beginning in 1952, Dummett served as editor-in-chief of the National Dental Association for twenty-two years beginning in 1953. He married Lois Doyle (1919-2013) in 1943, and they had one child, Dr. Clifton O. Dummett, Jr., who also became a dentist. Lois and Clifton Dummett authored nine books together.

Extent

153.771 Linear Feet (144 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

This collection contains the papers of Dr. Clifton O. Dummett (1919-2011), an African-American pioneer in the field of dentistry and a professor at the University of Southern California.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Lois M. Dummett, May 2013.

Processing Information

This collection is unprocessed.

Title
Finding aid for the Clifton O. Dummett papers
Status
Completed
Author
Diann Benti
Date
2022 November
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Revision Statements

  • 2023 August: Boxes added and finding aid updated by Marissa Chavez for History Associates Incorporated

Repository Details

Part of the Jennifer Ann Wilson Dental Library & Learning Center, HSC Library Repository

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