Papers of Robert Burr Livingston (1918-2002), professor of neuroscience and medical administrator. The collection includes correspondence, writings, talks and lectures, project materials, UC San Diego administrative and teaching materials, photographs, audiovisual materials, and digital files. Also included are papers of Livingston's mentor, neurophysiologist John Farquhar Fulton (1899-1960), and his father, neuroscientist William Kenneth Livingston (1892-1966).
Robert B. Livingston Papers, 1918 - 2000 (MSS 418)
OFF-SITE STORAGE: BULK OF COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS. Boxes
64-76 on-site.
Restrictions: Materials containing personally identifiable medical information are restricted. Researchers
may inquire about access to these materials in advance of their visit. Original media
formats and unprocessed digital media are restricted. Viewing/listening copies may
be available for researchers.
Extent: 54.3 Linear feet (32 archives boxes, 38 records cartons, 6 card file boxes, and 10 oversize folders)
Digital Content
The original film The Human Brain: Its Structures and Organization has been digitized.
Robert Burr Livingston was born in 1918 in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University in 1940 and graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1944, where he did his residency in internal medicine. Livingston served as a US Navy Medical Corps Reserve officer in Okinawa during World War II, and was awarded a Bronze Star. His major academic appointments include Harvard Medical School (1946-1947); the Yale University School of Medicine (1946-1952); the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine (1952-1957); and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine (1965-1989). Livingston served as scientific director for both the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NINDB) from 1956-1965. In 1965 he founded the world's first interdisciplinary neuroscience department at UC San Diego. Throughout his career, Livingston was active in several anti-nuclear weapons and peace organizations, including the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize for Peace.
Livingston's research has been concerned with investigating combinations of nervous and mental functions, using neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, behavioral, and clinical techniques. He has published widely in these fields, including chapters in John F. Fulton's Physiology of the Nervous System (fourth edition, 1960) and a dozen chapters in Best and Taylor's Physiological Basis of Medical Practice (eleventh edition, 1985). While a professor in the Department of Neurosciences at UC San Diego, he developed the Neurosciences Study Plan for graduate students. He is well known for his work in the cinemorphology of the human brain, using a technique developed at UC San Diego by Roy E. Mills which involves slicing, staining and photographing very thin sections of the whole human brain in sequence. The Human Brain: A Dynamic View of its Structures and Organization, an award-winning film on this research, was produced in 1976 by Sy Wexler.
Livingston has also made significant contributions to the study of the relationship between chronic undernutrition and human brain development, including participating in the Committee for Undernourished People research project. In 1986, the Army Medical Corps Research and Development Command selected Livingston's Laboratory for Quantitative Morphology in the Department of Neurosciences at UC San Diego to establish a national research and development program to construct a prototype computer system that would be capable of three-dimensional mapping and displaying the entire human brain at microscopic levels of detail. Livingston also consulted on the autopsy of President John F. Kennedy, and served as science advisor to the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. Livingston died in 2002 in La Jolla, California.
The Robert Burr Livingston Papers document the career and professional activities of a noted neuroscientist, professor and medical administrator. Materials include correspondence, writings, talks and lectures, project materials, and UC San Diego teaching materials. Also included are papers of Livingston's mentor, neurophysiologist John Farquhar Fulton (1899-1960), and his father, neuroscientist William Kenneth Livingston (1892-1966).
Accession Processed in 2005
Arranged in seven series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) SUBJECT FILES, 3) WRITINGS, 4) LECTURES AND TALKS, 5) PROJECTS, 6) TEACHING MATERIALS, and 7) JOHN F. FULTON MATERIALS.
Accession Processed in 2017
Arranged in eleven series: 8) BIOGRAPHICAL, 9) CORRESPONDENCE, 10) WRITINGS, 11) PROJECTS AND RESEARCH, 12) UC SAN DIEGO, 13) ORGANIZATIONS AND COMMITTEES, 14) DALAI LAMA, 15) WILLIAM K. LIVINGSTON, 16) PHOTOGRAPHS, 17) SOUND RECORDINGS, and 18) FILM AND VIDEO.