The ever-changing content of Pediatrics over fifty years.

At the time of the first edition of Pediatrics, the Journal of Pediatrics was the major pediatric publication in the United States. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) was instrumental in the establishment of the Journal of Pediatrics in 1931 and had designated it as its “official organ.” The Journal of Pediatrics, owned by C. V. Mosby Company, was generating profit, the magnitude of which was kept secret by Mosby. This led to friction between the publisher and leaders of the AAP, and there also was concern about having the AAP’s official organ controlled by a “business concern foreign to pediatrics.”1 At the February 1947 annual meeting of the AAP in Pittsburgh, PA, Dr Borden Veeder, who, with Dr Hugh McCulloch, was a coeditor of the Journal of Pediatrics, introduced a resolution that the AAP should discontinue its relationship and cease designating the Journal of Pediatrics as its official organ. It also was recommended that the Journal of Pediatrics editorial board, all of whom were members of the AAP, should resign immediately. It was finally recommended that the AAP should establish a new journal, to be named Pediatrics, with sole AAP ownership. Dr McCulloch was appointed the first editor. Despite his resolution, Borden Veeder remained as editor of the Journal of Pediatrics! The nine members of the editorial board of the Journal of Pediatrics who resigned became the first editorial board of Pediatrics. This included some of the foremost leaders in the field of pediatrics of the time. Fifty years of uninterrupted publication ensued, culminating in the semicentennial of Pediatrics, which this issue commemorates. For my review of the content of Pediatrics, I divided the first 50 years of Pediatrics into five eras: 1) the Hugh McCulloch era, volumes 1 to 14, 1948 to 1954; 2) the Charles May era, volumes 15 to 28, 1955 to 1961; 3) the Clement Smith era, volumes 29 to 52, 1962 to 1973; 4) the first Jerold Lucey era, volumes 53 to 74, 1974 to 1984; and 5) the second Jerold Lucey era, volume 75 on, 1985 to the present. THE HUGH McCULLOCH ERA, VOLUMES 1 TO 14, 1948 TO 1954 Volume 1, number 1, of Pediatrics appeared in January 1948. As outlined in Dr James Strain’s accompanying article on the history of Pediatrics, the new journal consisted of four divisions: original articles, proceedings and reports of the AAP, special features, and advertising. The editor and editorial board insisted specifically that they should not be involved with the business, financial, or advertising aspects of Pediatrics. Advertising is detailed by Dr Larry Gartner elsewhere in this semicentennial publication. Other components of the journal included book reports, letters to the editor, news and announcements, and editorials. A list of pediatricians newly certified by the American Board of Pediatrics was published regularly. In 1948, there were 132 American Board of Pediatrics diplomates; by 1997 this number grew to nearly 1500. An abstract in Spanish followed each original article. The Spanish abstracts were included to improve communications with pediatricians in Latin America, which, at that time, was designated District IX of the AAP. The first 14 volumes had an average of 800 print pages. AAP Proceedings and Reports were a major part of Pediatrics during the McCulloch era. This included many AAP features such as a presidential report, a report of the executive committee, AAP committee and district reports, financial statements, the annual audit, and membership lists, as well as the proceedings of round tables, panel discussions, and seminars at the annual and regional meetings. The results and conclusions of a very important AAP study were published in the first few volumes of Pediatrics.1–3 These articles summarized the results of the Study of Child Health Services and Pediatric Education that were published formally by the Commonwealth Fund in 1949. In a 50-year history of the AAP, Dr James Hughes characterized the study as the most extensive and important ever conducted by the AAP.4 The circumstances of the study have been well described by Dr Myron Wegman.5 The study arose because of post-World War II concerns involving the Emergency Maternity and Infant Care Program (EMIC). The EMIC was created by Dr Martha Eliot, director of the Children’s Bureau, at the beginning of World War II to care for the wives and children of US servicemen, many of whom had followed their husbands to military bases, often far from home. Costs of their medical care, including physician fees, were paid using federal funds allocated by the Children’s Bureau. Obstetricians and pediatricians participated despite concerns From the Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. Received for publication Mar 19, 1998; accepted Mar 19, 1998. Address correspondence to: Howard A. Pearson, MD, FAAP, Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar St, New Haven, CT 06520. PEDIATRICS (ISSN 0031 4005). Copyright © 1998 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.