Archives West Finding Aid

The Barney B. Clark papers (1910-1984) provide information on the development of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart, the implantation of this heart into a human being, and on Barney Bailey Clark, the first authorized recipient of this artificial heart. The bulk of the collection consists of materials related to the writing of a story about Barney Clark and the artificial heart by Earl and Miriam Selby. Between October 1980 and April 1984, Reader's Digest decided to publish a story about the artificial heart and Dr. Barney B. Clark. The authors commissioned to this task were Earl and Miriam Selby. However, before they were finished, the management at the magazine decided to scrap the project. The materials were then given to Dr. Clark's widow, Una Loy. The bulk of the material is comprised of interviews preformed by the Selby's to gather information for their story. The collection also contains several rough drafts of the Selby's manuscript, personal and professional correspondence, medical charts, information about the development and use of the artificial heart, newspaper and magazine articles about the artificial heart, and a personal account of the events by Dr. Clark's family.

The collection has been divided into five sections. The first section contains personal material. Box 1 starts with an account of what happened to Dr. Barney B. Clark during the artificial heart transplant. This account is told from the family's perspective and was arranged by Una Loy Clark and Susan J. Quall. This account is followed by a speech given by Mrs. Clark about Peggy Miller, the social worker who helped Dr. and Mrs. Clark during the transplant procedure. This is followed by some of the certificates awarded to Dr. Clark, four scrapbooks prepared by Mrs. Clark after the death of her husband, and information about Dr. Clark's fortieth high school reunion. Boxes 2 through 4 contain correspondence written to Dr. Clark during his convalescence at the University of Utah Medical Center. This correspondence is arranged alphabetically by the last name of the person or the organization responsible for writing the letter.

Section two begins in Box 5, and contains Dr. Clark's medical charts in chronological order, papers about the artificial heart, Dr. Clark's Psychological evaluation after the operation, some of the media coverage that this historical case produced, press releases about the artificial heart, copies of photographs taken at the hospital and the animal research barn (the original photographs are located in the Special Collections Photo Section), and a schedule of all the surgeries that were planed for on the day Dr. Clark received his new heart.

Section three, "Interview Transcripts," begins in box 7 and continues thru to box 19. Typically, it contains the transcripts from the audio cassette tapes of some of the interviews with the Selbys. In many instances we also have a copy of a resume of the person interviewed. If we have that resume, it will be located in the first folder of the transcript of that person. This section of the collection is arranged in alphabetical order by the last name. However, not all of the audio cassette tapes were transcribed. In fact, there are sixty-nine tapes without a transcription. The interviews contain discrepencies. Some parts of the interviews were omitted by the Selbys when they were transcribed. Also, the interview section numbers were designated by the Selbys and are not always consecutive. For instance, the sections could have been accidently misnumbered. The Selbys did attempt to correct this mistake, and we have helped them. And finally, when they did the interviews with Mrs. Clark, the interviews were done in two groups. The second group was used to clarify certain points discussed in the first group, and even though the Selbys started the section numbering over again, the processor of this collection continued the numbering where group one left off in order to avoid confusion. The second group begins in section forty-five.

The forth section of the collection, "Rough Drafts," contains the two most complete, drafts of the Selby's manuscript, some past drafts of Dr. Kolff's contribution to that manuscript, background information that Earl and Miriam Selby used to write their draft, an epilogue to the unfinished manuscript, and two entirely different drafts written by the Selbys. When looking through the two most complete drafts of Dr. Clark's story, note that Draft A and Draft B are terms used to distinguish between them. Draft A refers to the earliest draft in the collection, while Draft B refers to the most recent one.

The final section of the collection can be found in boxes 22 and 23. These are oversized boxes that contain many of the plaques and awards granted to Dr. Clark. It should be noted that most of these awards were given to him posthumously; and thus, they were received by his wife.