The Rockefeller Archive Center (Rockefeller Foundation Archives) is an independently operating foundation that preserves and makes available for research the archival collections of members of the Rockefeller family, and of institutions and organizations founded by Rockefeller family members (including the Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, General Education Board, Rockefeller University, Population Council, Asia Society, and many other organizations). It is the archival repository for the records of many philanthropic and service organizations. The Center also holds extensive collections of the personal papers of trustees, officers, faculty, and associates who were affiliated with these institutions. (Information excerpted from http://www.rockarch.org/about/.)

For information on accessing the Rockefeller Archive Center, see http://www.rockarch.org/research/inforesearch.php. The catalogue can be searched online at http://dimes.rockarch.org/xtf/search; many files have been digitised.

Records relating to leprosy at the Rockefeller Archive Center relate to the following: an attempt to organise a leprosy survey in the South Pacific in 1930-31; Rockefeller support for the foundation of the Leonard Wood Memorial for the Eradication of Leprosy; a proposal for the Leprosy Research Fund in England; and a proposal for a Leonard Wood Memorial organised Leprosy Conference in 1981 at the Bellagio Study and Conference Centre in Italy. A detailed description of the files relating to leprosy is available here.

The documents relating to the leprosy survey include correspondence between Dr SM Lambert, Representative of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Western Pacific Health Service, British Solomon Islands colony and Dr V G Heiser, when he was Director for the East, International Health Division, of the Rockefeller Foundation NY. From late 1930 until March 1932, they considered the possibility of a leprosy survey and improved leprosy control measures, including the design of the survey and the budget, but the proposal seems to have floundered because funding was not available.

The documents relating to Rockefeller support for the Leonard Wood Memorial are mainly correspondence covering the years from 1925 to 1957. (Victor Heiser was part of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1914 until 1934.) These indicate an approach to Heiser as representative of the Rockefeller Foundation in June 1925 concerning the problem of leprosy in the Philippines; Mrs Wade's approach to Col Arthur Wood, the Governor General of the Philippines in August 1926 on the matter of Dr Wade's work at Culion and making an appeal for funds; the initial moves to begin funding raising, including the establishment of a finding raising committee that was to become on the death of General Leonard Wood in 1928 to the Leonard Wood Memorial for the Eradication of Leprosy.

The correspondence provides evidence of the persistent bids to enlist the financial support of J D Rockefeller; information about the aspirations of the Leonard Wood Memorial concerning the work being done at Culion. In February 1928, Mrs Wade prepared a detailed budget which included money for capital expenditure on Culion and also for a treatment station. Correspondence associated with fundraising covers the years 1928 to 1930.

There is also some correspondence from Perry Burgess to J D Rockefeller 3rd on Burgess's book Who Walk Alone in 1944, 1954, and 1957.

There is a 1954 proposal for the London-based Leprosy Research Fund. This proposal includes a list of research priorities with partner institutions such as the Anatomy Department at the University of Oxford; the Bacteriology Department at the University of Singapore, the Strangeways Laboratory, Cambridge, the Tata Memorial Hospital, Bombay, the Victoria Leprosy Hospital, the Leprosy Hospital, Kano, Nigeria, and the Christian Medical Centre, Vellore.

The correspondence associated with the Leprosy Research Conference to be held at the Bellagio Study and Conference Centre in Italy, June 1982 is about verifying the importance of the conference, the participants, and the expectations of the Scientific Board. This extends from September 1981 to January 1982.

The archive also holds a report from 1936 on the British Solomon Islands Protectorate and a 1938 report on epidemiological survey of Cook Islands by John Numa.

Entry created January 2016