A printed inventory for the collection is available in the John Hay Library.
Earl F. Zinn was a student of G. Stanley Hall's at Clark University located in Massachusetts. Zinn does not appear to have graduated from Clark University. From 1921-1929 he served as Executive Secretary of the Committee for Research in Problems of Sex, coordinated jointly by the American Social Hygiene Association (later the American Social Health Association) and the Bureau of Social Hygiene. Over the course of his career he had affiliations with the National Research Council Committee, the Rockefeller Foundation in the Division of Science, Worcester State Hospital, and the Yale Medical School Division of Psychiatry.
The collection is organized in two series:
Earl F. Zinn Case Notes of a Psychiatric Patient, MS. 93.18, Brown University
Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
The collection documents the case history of a sibling child, the prognosis for which was deteriorated hebephrenic schizophrenic. During the period covered by these recordings, the patient was in the Worcester State Hospital and in the psychiatric ward at the Yale Medical School, Division of Psychiatry. Materials include interview transcriptions and drawings and paintings produced by the patient.
Earl F. Zinn was the first person known to have made recordings of psychotherapeutic interviews. The interviews were conducted in the 1930s at the Institute of Human Relations, Yale University. Zinn recorded 350 hours of interviews using an Ediphone dictation machine. The verbatim transcriptions were kept by Zinn, and the results of the interviews are unpublished. Notes are grouped by topic. Zinn's numbering system has been retained. The relationship between recordings, notes, and the numbering system is not delineated within the collection. Beyond the notes, a group of drawings and paintings by the patient were maintained by Zinn. Some of the art works include annotations by an unidentified hand. A number of these are dated between 1936 and 1938.
There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
The collection received as gift of Mrs. Earl F. Zinn, September 1968.
A letter from Sigmund Freud, dated [1925?] December 31, Vienna, and addressed to Earl F. Zinn separated from the collection and cataloged separately (Ms.45.18).
Of these original records there are three extant edited copies in the Worcester State Hospital Library, the Yale Medical School Library, and the New York Psychoanalytical Society Library.