Scope and Content Note
The papers of William C. Gorgas (1853-1920) relate mainly to his work combating yellow fever in Florida and Latin America, particularly Cuba, and Panama. The collection spans the years 1857-1919, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1904-1913. Included are correspondence, reports, addresses, articles, financial and miscellaneous records, medical papers, charts, clippings, photographs, and printed material organized into seven series: General Correspondence and Other Papers ; Subject File ; Addresses, Articles, and Reports ; Account Books ; Medical Papers ; Miscellany ; and Photographs .
The chronological file of the General Correspondence and Other Papers series contains many items of a routine nature. Prior to 1904 the documentation is largely miscellaneous in nature including personal account books and medical papers relating to patients and yellow fever as well as some family, military, and business correspondence. Following 1913, Gorgas's activities are represented by a minimum of correspondence, a few miscellaneous subject folders, and a small group of papers used to prepare a report on Latin America by the Rockefeller Foundation's Yellow Fever Commission of 1916. There is no material covering his activities as surgeon general of the United States Army.
Rounding out the collection are drafts and reprints of speeches, articles, reports, miscellaneous printed matter, and photographs of Gorgas and scenes of Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and the United States. Included in the Miscellany series are extracts of a journal of Josiah Gorgas (1818-1883) that chronicles the Civil War and Reconstruction from the perspective of a Confederate officer who served on the headquarters staff and during the Appomattox Campaign.
The papers contain correspondence of a routine nature with many prominent physicians, sanitary engineers, military officers, federal officials, and United States congressmen. Correspondents include James L. Bevans, James Ten Broeck Bowles, Thomas Barbour, Henry Rose Carter, William M. Doughty, F. A. Ferris, Carlos Juan Finlay, John Guiteras, William W. Keen, C. C. McCulloch, Jr., S. Weir Mitchell, G. R. Plummer, Claus Karl Schilling, George T. Stevens, and George Miller Sternberg.