The Donald B Cooper Collection at the Ohio State University Libraries consists mainly in photocopied and transcribed documents and publications, assembled and annotated by Dr Cooper, a historian at the Ohio State University from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. Some original documents and printed materials are also held. Most of the material is from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries and mainly relates to epidemic disease in Brazil and to a lesser extent in other Latin American countries and other parts of the world. Draft chapters of Dr Cooper’s book on disease, medicine and public health in Brazil also form part of the collection, as well as his notes for an earlier book on epidemic disease in colonial Mexico City.

Holdings on leprosy include the following: Box 3 contains documents and reports of the Health Service in Brazil pertaining to leprosaria (1809-1917; 1818-1825; 1843-1849); articles on leprosy and the need to create a Brazilian medical practice, from Annaes de Medicina Brasiliense (1845-1846; 1848-1849); and Dr Cooper’s notes on the contents. In Box 5 are documents on leprosy from the Port Inspector of Health (1875-1876), and Box 6 holds a selection of articles on the disease from several issues of O Brazil-Médico (1890; 1891; 1900), with summaries and notes by Cooper. Box 8 contains notes on various articles on leprosy from The Brazilian Review (1899-1904). In Box 9 and 10 are more pages from Brazil-Médico (1905;1919-1920;1926-1927) and Box 10 also contains articles from several issues of Revista Médico-Cirurgia do Brasil (1928; 1930-1934). Box 20 holds parts of reports on leprosy by the provincial presidents of Bahia (1823-1852), with a note by Dr Cooper.

Entry made April 2002