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Introduction

Introduction

This exhibit showcases the treasures of the Digital Alcohol Studies Archives, which aims to preserve resources formerly available for researchers at the Library and Archives at the Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies.

The Rutgers Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies is the first interdisciplinary research center devoted to alcohol use and alcohol-related problems and treatment. Evolving in the late 1930s and 1940s at the Yale University Laboratory of Applied Physiology and Biodynamics, which was directed by Yale physician Howard W. Haggard, the Section on Alcohol Studies, headed by E. M. Jellinek, pursued studies of the effects of alcohol on the body, which broadened into a wide perspective of alcohol-related problems. Another of Dr. Haggard’s contributions to the field was founding the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol in 1940.

The increasing demand for information about alcoholism led the Center to found the Summer School of Alcohol Studies in 1943. In 1944, the Center also began the Yale Plan Clinics, the first-ever outpatient facility for the treatment of alcoholism. The Yale Plan for Business and Industry, the forerunner of current-day employee assistance programs, also began in the mid-1940s in response to requests from businesses and industries having to cope with employment shortages during World War II. 

In 1962, the Center moved to Rutgers University. It has continued the tradition with research programs and pre- and postdoctoral training in clinical and experimental psychology, neuropharmacology, psychophysiology, sociology, public health, social work, and prevention. This exhibit is based on the Rutgers Digital Alcohol Studies Archives, hosted by Rutgers University Libraries.

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Smithers Hall, Busch Campus, the home of the Rutgers Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies

This architect's sketch depicts the Smithers Hall to be built on Busch Campus through the generosity of R. Brinkley Smithers and the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation to provide offices, conference space, and laboratories for biological and psychological research. From the 1963 issue of the Alumni News.
About the Center and the Journal
About the Digital Alcohol Studies Collection 

From the Digital Alcohol Studies Archives

Visit the Rutgers Digital Alcohol Studies Archives!