Scope and Content Note
The papers of Robert C. Gallo span the years 1959 to 2016, with the bulk of the material dating between 2007 and 2015. The collection is arranged into two groupings: Paper file and Digital file.
The collection documents Gallo’s career as a virologist, especially his tenure as co-founder and director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland at Baltimore during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Paper file primarily reflects the later portion of Gallo's career, especially the years between 2007 and 2015, and comprises correspondence, newspaper clippings, and scripts and programs related to speeches and lectures Gallo gave at various events. Incoming and outgoing correspondence and newspaper clippings from 2008 and 2009 documents Gallo’s response and the response of friends, colleagues, and the media to his exclusion from the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded to discoverers of HIV and cancer viruses. To a lesser extent, the Paper file documents Gallo’s early career at the National Cancer Institute and the research that lead to his co-discovery of HIV, its connection to AIDS, and the development of the HIV blood test during the early 1980s. Records representing this time period include memoranda, correspondence, minutes of the AIDS Task Force Advisory Group, and to a small degree, writings by Gallo. In some cases, reagents and other research data is attached to the correspondence.
The Digital file is comprised primarily of video files featuring interviews with Gallo on a variety of television programs, PDF files containing proceedings from various conferences, and PowerPoint presentations. Dates range from 1984 to 2013, though like the Paper file, the vast majority of the files represent Gallo's career with the Institute of Human Virology. These files were removed from physical media associated with Gallo's papers and can be requested using the Digital ID.