Quantity: 4.75 linear feet
Dates: 1945-1991

Alexander Duff Robertson (1926-1991) was a teacher of public health and preventive medicine, an administrator of health organizations, and a spokesman for social medicine. The papers consist of correspondence, topical files, photographs, writings, diplomas, awards, speeches, certificates, and curricula vitae that document Alexander Duff Robertson’s career, lifelong interest in public health, and years at the World Health Organization (WHO). While at the WHO, he held numerous positions such as chief of human resources for the Caribbean; regional advisor on medical education and public health; public health administrator; director of health manpower development; and director of health services in the regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean in Alexandria, Egypt. His last two assignments placed him in Geneva, where he was program manager for staff development and training and special advisor to the director general for occupied Arab territories, including Palestine.

Quantity: 118 linear feet
Dates: 1930-2000

Milton Irwin Roemer (1916-2001) was an advocate for government supported health programs and health maintenance organizations, who held positions in health administration with the United States Public Health Service, the World Health Organization, and the Saskatchewan Department of Public Health. He also taught at Yale University and the University of California Los Angeles.

The papers include correspondence, writings, topical files, and photographs, which document Milton Roemer’s career as a health administrator, a professor of public health, and an advocate for national health insurance. The papers also highlight Roemer’s work for the World Health Organization and the Saskatchewan Department of Public Health and include material concerning his loyalty case.

Quantity: 15.25 linear feet
Dates: 1912-1978

George Rosen was regarded both nationally and internationally as one of the preeminent scholars of the history of medicine. He came to Yale in 1969 as professor of the history of medicine and epidemiology and public health. His papers consist of correspondence, both professional and personal; writings; research materials; files on professional conferences, associations, and activities; reprints; and photographs.

Quantity: 9.75 linear feet
Dates: 1935-1990
Note: this collection does not yet have an online finding aid; an unpublished finding aid is available in the repository.

The papers consist of correspondence, diaries, writings, and topical files which document Leonard Rosenfeld’s career in the field of public health. The papers highlight Rosenfeld’s work for the Institute of Inter-American Affairs in Nicaragua, as vice-chairman of the Health Services Planning Commission for the Province of Saskatchewan, and as associate director of the Community Health Association of Detroit, a group practice prepayment plan established by the United Auto Workers.

Quantity: 1.5 linear feet
Dates: 1864-1922

William Thompson Sedgwick (1855-1921), educator and bacteriologist, was one of the founders of the American public health profession. Educated at Yale (Ph.B., 1877) and Johns Hopkins (Ph.D., 1881), Sedgwick taught at Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard. He was responsible for founding schools of public health in both M.I.T. and Harvard.

The papers contain correspondence, teaching and research materials, and writings collected by C.-E.A. Winslow for a biography of Sedgwick, published in 1924. The correspondence (1879-1921) is with students and colleagues on professional matters, and the fragmentary research material concerns bacteriological studies of milk. The writings include articles, lecture notes, reports and essays relating to public health and public health education. Although fragmented and incomplete, these papers represent the largest extant collection of Sedgwick material.

Quantity: 25 linear feet
Dates: 1891-1991

Henry E. Sigerist (1891-1957), though renowned primarily as a medical historian and educator, made a major contribution to the development of social medicine in the United States as an author and advisor on public health policy, administration, legislation and education. The papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts and copies of writings and speeches, office files from his professional activities and research and biographical material. Although incomplete, the papers contain valuable correspondence with many leading figures in public health, health policy, the history of medicine, and politics.

Quantity: 7.5 linear feet
Dates: 1946-1999

George A. Silver (1913- ), public health administrator, educator, consultant, and author, was an advocate of comprehensive health planning and of a national health service. The papers document Silver’s concern with the level and costs of American health care, the problems caused by poorly trained foreign physicians in the United States, the poorly organized health care delivery system in the country, national health insurance, public health education, and health care legislation.

Quantity: 3 linear feet
Dates: 1912-1966

The papers document Nathan Sinai’s career as a professor of public health at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and his many posts on national and international health organizations. Included also are research data concerning costs of medical care in three cities in the United States in 1929 compiled by the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care, material on medical relief in Essex County, Ontario, and studies and reports on medical economics in Michigan (1933-1948). There are also papers on the Twentieth Century Fund, the World Health Organization and on health benefits for the UAW-CIO in 1949.

Quantity: 27.3 linear feet
Dates: 1861-1988

Albert Waldo Snoke (1907-1988) served on the staff or as director of hospitals including the Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York and Grace-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. He taught hospital administration at Yale University and oversaw the development of the Yale-New Haven Hospital, serving as its executive director from 1965-1968. From 1969-1973, Snoke worked in Illinois as coordinator of health services and later as acting executive director of the Illinois Comprehensive State Health Planning Agency.

The papers consist of correspondence, hospital consultation files, reports, subject files, writings, research material, photographs, and audiotapes which document Albert W. Snoke’s career in hospital administration and his interest in health care, particularly health planning, health legislation, medical economics, medical ethics, national health insurance, and regional medical programs. The papers also include material concerning the career of his wife, Parnie Storey Hamilton Snoke, and the Snoke, Storey, and Hamilton families.

Quantity: 26.25 linear feet
Dates: 1955-2006

Anne R. Somers (b. 1914) was a medical economist, author, educator and consultant. Her papers consist primarily of drafts and copies of speeches, articles, studies and books. Many of Somers's most important works were produced in collaboration with her husband Herman Somers. They document her early career as a specialist in labor relations and workmen's compensation and education, and beginning in the 1950s, her exploration of the problems of health insurance, consumer health education, and hospital and public health administration. The correspondence section, while often routine, contains exchanges with many leading figures in public health, medical economics and health insurance.

Quantity: 16 linear feet
Dates: 1936-1979

Herman M. Somers (b. 1911), was an influential medical economist, author and scholar, as well as a consultant to government agencies and private organizations. Somers investigated the economics of various private and public prepaid health insurance plans, and the effect of such plans on the administration, cost and quality of medical care and on the personal and economic relationship between physicians and their patients.

The papers include correspondence, teaching papers, organization and subject files and writings reflecting various aspects of Somers’ career as a teacher of political science at Harvard, Haverford and Princeton (1947-1979), as a member of task forces developing the Medicare program, and as a prolific writer in the field of American health policy.