The Benjamin E. Washburn papers contain few items of a personal nature. Consisting of reports, correspondence, scrapbooks, diaries, photographs, books and journals, the papers concern Washburn's employment with the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission (1913-1914) and the International Health Board/Division (1915-1939).
Important subjects in this collection include: malaria control, drainage of mosquito breeding, development and use of spraying equipment for insecticides.
Important subjects in this collection include arbovirus research, encephalitis, International Health Division, microbiology, public health, Rockefeller Foundation reorganizations, Rockefeller Foundation virus labs, tick fever, tuberculosis, and yellow fever.
Almost all of the material included in the collection is administrative and is indicative of trends and overviews as the result of a large amount of statistics included here. The collection briefly sketches Dr. Ferrell's association with the International Health Division of The Rockefeller Foundation.
The Kenneth C. Smithburn papers document the career of research scientist Kenneth C. Smithburn in the identification and isolation of viruses, particularly the Yellow Fever virus in Africa. The papers also document more broadly the Foundation's interest in public health through the International Health Division and its successor, the Division of Medicine and Public Health. The papers span the years 1922 to 1974, with the bulk falling between the years 1938 through 1959.
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.
