The China Medical Board, Inc. Collection, 1914-1971, consists almost exclusively of material dealing with the Peking Union Medical College (PUMC), 1918-1951. The Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) appears to have sent to its financial supporters, first the China Medical Board and then the China Medical Board, Inc., much of its correspondence, memos and reports, to keep those in New York informed as to what was going on in China. As the ownership of the buildings and grounds of the Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) was transferred from the CMB to the CMB, Inc., many records were also transferred. This accounts for many pre-1928 documents found in the files.

The John H. Knowles papers consist of professional and personal correspondence, reports, manuscripts, scrapbooks, appointment calendars, information files, photographs, slides, tapes, and a film relating to his administrative posts at Massachusetts General Hospital and The Rockefeller Foundation, and to his medical career. Most of the papers date from his tenure at Massachusetts General Hospital. There is very little concerning The Rockefeller Foundation or his personal life.

The Nelson C. Davis Collection will be of interest both to the historian of medical research and of medical education. The lecture notes and class papers prepared by Dr. Davis at all levels of his training have been preserved in this collection. Also included are drafts of papers, some of them unpublished, at various stages of preparation, reprints of his published articles, and a wide variety of supporting research materials (such as reprints and periodicals), many taken from Portuguese- or Spanish-language publications. A substantial portion of his laboratory diary (kept at Bahia from 1928 to 1933) can be found in this collection as well as a number of field notebooks and records of experiments. Personal correspondence, however, has been rather scantily preserved.

The Boards represented in this series are the most important philanthropies that have been developed from the Rockefeller fortune: the Bureau of Social Hygiene; the China Medical Board of the Rockefeller Foundation and its successor, the China Medical Board, Inc.; the Davison Fund; the General Education Board; the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; the Rockefeller Foundation; the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now known as Rockefeller University); the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission; the Sealantic Fund; and the Spelman Fund of New York.

The Mideast Wheat Research and Training Project records contain general correspondence and administrative documents pertaining to the Turkish wheat stations and the various foundations and institutions connected to wheat research in Turkey during the 1970s. Correspondence, reports, and printed material detail the Center's wheat research work and plant breeding and its interactions with Turkish authorities and with other agricultural institutes and university agronomists. This collection documents the day-to-day work of the Center; for materials regarding the establishment and administration of the Wheat Research Center one should consult the files on Turkish Wheat Research in the Rockefeller Foundation project files, RG 1, Accession 83, Series 105 (804).

Important Subjects

The records include correspondence, conference proceedings, financial materials, annual reports, fellowships material, officers diaries, and personnel records.

The New Delhi Field Office records (RG 6.7) of the Rockefeller Foundation Archives document the operation of the office and the programs it administered in the medical, agricultural, and social sciences. The records span the dates 1935 to 1976, but 90% of the record group dates from the period 1956 to 1973 and relates to the Indian Agricultural Program (IAP), operated by the RF's Natural Sciences and Agriculture Division. The IAP records provide a comprehensive account of the RF's role in establishing an international collaborative program of technical assistance. They also constitute an important source for the study of the history of modern agriculture and agricultural education in India.

The International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation maintained an office in Paris from 1917 as the headquarters for the work of the Commission for the Prevention of Tuberculosis in France. In 1922, anticipating the transfer of the tuberculosis work to the French, and the expansion of work in Europe, the Board agreed to share space and administrative expenses with the Rockefeller Foundation's Division of Medical Education. The Nursing Survey of the IHB was to be carried on from the same location. Other administrative units of the Foundation concerned with work in Europe used the same office.

Correspondence of The Rockefeller Foundation consists principally of material not directly connected with an institutional grant. It includes: inter-office memoranda, correspondence between field officers and the home office, extracts from officers' diaries, forms and other material relating to fellowships; casual requests for information, employment, or aid; printed matter and letters of abuse received by the Foundation. As such, the General Correspondence provides insight into the day-to-day workings of the Foundation.