Research

Scope and Content Note

This series contains correspondence, reports, project applications and proposals, news releases and articles, newspaper clippings, speeches, programs, publications, charts, maps, schedules, and other literature involving public health in New York State. The bulk of the series includes records created and maintained by Dr. H. Jackson Davis, who was responsible for establishing the first statewide health care program for persons on relief. Much of the correspondence includes Harry Hopkins of the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), and is in the form of telegrams, instructions, regulations, requests, and recommendations.

Most of the reports in this series document public health, public assistance, and health insurance. They include the medical plans for the New York counties of Erie, Broome, Yates, Orleans, West Chester, Nassau, and Steuben, as well as plans from other states. A few others originate from the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA) and the WPA. The project applications and proposals mostly concern nursing relief and public assistance. Most of the programs are about public assistance, medical care, and social security. The schedules included in this series mainly involve fees and salaries for doctors and reimbursements. The bulk of the charts and maps represent studies and statistics on narcotics control, disease outbreaks, immunization, doctors, insurance, birth rates, and death rates. The numerous publications are in the form of pamphlets, booklets, and bulletins. Many were produced by New York counties, the New York State WPA, the New York State Department of Health, as well as other states. The news releases and articles come from the Board of Social Welfare, the Federal Security Agency, and the Social Security Board. The speeches are copies of those given by the Social Security Board.

The series also contains plenty of public health literature on milk sanitation, its benefits and preparation, studies on communicable diseases, and information about other states' social welfare programs, problems, disease, and sterilization practices. There are multiple copies of the New York State Medical Manual and of a preliminary report on the New York State Temporary Legislative Committee to Form a Long Range State Health Program.