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Personal Papers and Manuscripts

FRANK A. CALDERONE, 1901-1987.
Papers, 1911-1984 (bulk 1936-1957)
4.5 cubic feet (14 boxes; 2 volumes; 1 folder)


Summary
Biographical Note
Organization
Scope and Content
Provenance
Restrictions
Subjects
Box & Folder List


BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:
Frank Anthony Calderone was born in New York City on March 10, 1901, the son of Salvatore and Rosaria Spoleti Calderone. His father, a prosperous Italian immigrant, owned a chain of movie theaters in Nassau County, N.Y. Frank Calderone was graduated from Stuyvesant High School, attended Columbia College (non-graduate, Class of 1921) and received his medical degree from New York University in 1924.

Calderone was an instructor in pharmacology at NYU from 1931 to 1936, and in 1937 received his master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins. In 1938, he became the New York City Health Department's District Health Officer for the Lower East Side, where he was responsible for the neighborhood's new Health and Teaching Center. He was named Secretary of the department in 1942 and First Deputy Commissioner in 1943.

In 1946, Calderone became Director, Headquarters Office, Interim Commission of the World Health Organization (WHO). After WHO became a permanent agency of the United Nations in 1948, he served as Chief Technical Liaison Officer and Director of the New York Liaison Office until his resignation at the end of 1949.

After briefly serving as Director of the New York City Cancer Committee, Calderone was Director of Health Services for the United Nations Secretariat from 1951 to 1954. He served, 1955-1957, as President of the Occupational Health Institute, an organization devoted to "helping management establish sound health practices and programs." After 1957, Calderone devoted himself to his private medical practice in Nassau County, N.Y. and to managing his family's theater and real estate interests.

Calderone was first married in 1929 to Lola Calderone; they were divorced in 1941. That same year he married Mary Steichen, a physician who was the daughter of the photographer Edward Steichen. She later became a leader in the field of sex education.

After his death in 1987, Calderone's will established the Frank A. Calderone Medal and Prize. The Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health awards them to individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of public health. The first recipient was C. Everett Koop in 1992.

ORGANIZATION:
Organized in nine series: I. Personal correspondence/Subject files; II. Professional organizations; III. New York City Department of Health; IV. World Health Organization; V. United Nations Medical Director; VI. Occupational Health Institute; VII. Photographs and artifacts; VIII. Audio recordings; IX. Scrapbooks.

SCOPE AND CONTENT:

Correspondence, reports, minutes, speeches, interviews, notes, scrapbooks, posters, phonodiscs, audiotapes, photographs and artifacts documenting the public health career of Frank A. Calderone, physician and public health official.


The bulk of the Calderone papers dates from 1936 to 1957.   There is no family correspondence and nothing on his parallel career managing his family's theater business.

Series I: Personal correspondence/subject files. Largely relating to Calderone's education, the series includes class notes on public health (possibly from his time at Johns Hopkins); awards and certificates; speeches and talks; and a small amount of personal correspondence.

Series II: Professional organizations. Records of Calderone's involvement with several organizations mostly devoted to public health. His role in the American Committee for Italian Migration (ACIM) and the Welfare and Health Council of New York is particularly well-documented.

The ACIM was founded in 1952 as an outgrowth of the National Catholic Resettlement Council to promote "fair and equitable immigration" of Italians to the US, and to challenge the 1924 immigration laws. Calderone was the founding chairman of the ACIM's Long Island Chapter. Included are financial records, membership lists, newspaper clippings, press releases, programs, copies of the "ACIM Dispatch," and correspondence with officers of the national organization.

The Welfare and Health Council of New York City resulted from a 1952 merger of the Welfare Council of New York with the Health Council of Greater New York. Calderone joined the latter organization in 1950 and remained active in the new association, serving as Chairman of the Health Education Division and being named to the Board of Directors. Records include minutes of the Board of Directors and various committees, reports, publicity materials and correspondence.

Series III: New York City Department of Health: Public health work in diphtheria, tuberculosis, diabetes and nutrition is all documented here with a particular focus on the Lower East Side. The Mother's Health Organization (MHO), created by Calderone to improve pediatric nutrition by working directly through neighborhood mothers, is the largest single subject. Included are correspondence, summary reports, newspaper clippings, nutrition pamphlets and transcripts of speeches and radio interviews (including some by Mary Steichen, the organization's executive secretary). A scrapbook relating to this initiative can be found in Series IX.

Records of the "Parade of Nations," planned to celebrate the opening of the Lower East Side Health and Teaching Center, are also voluminous. The bulk is correspondence with the neighborhood's numerous ethnic organizations, the foreign-language press and diplomatic representatives. Another highlight are letters, many in Yiddish, from diabetics writing about their condition in response to an article in the Jewish Daily Forward on the Department's work in this field (Box 3:8-9; Box 4:1).

Series IV: World Health Organization. The correspondence between Calderone and Brock Chisholm, Interim Director and, later, Director-General of WHO is voluminous and substantive (Box 6:7-8). A wide range of political and public health issues is discussed, particularly the ratification of WHO's constitution and its relationship with other UN and public health agencies. Calderone's possibly unpublished account (c. 1950) of the early years of WHO, "The World Health Organization - The First Three Years," (Box 7:3) provides a concise overview of the achievements of the organization in its infancy. The audiotapes in Series VIII also document Calderone's activities while with WHO.

Series V: United Nations Medical Director. There is little relating to Calderone's time as UN Medical Director, 1951-1954. Included are a departmental handbook (1953) and a report of the organization of the UN Secretariat.

Series VI: Occupational Health Institute. The bulk of the series documents a survey on "the future of industrial medicine" personally undertaken by Calderone in 1955 while he was president of the OHI. This was a "qualitative" survey by letter of over 1,000 individuals in leadership positions in industry, labor, insurance, medicine and public health. Their responses were the basis for Calderone's article, "The Economics of Preventive Medicine: A Synthesis of Opinion," published in the March 1956 issue of Industrial Medicine and Surgery. Included are responses to the initial survey as well as to Calderone's article; correspondence with Edward Bernays, who was employed by OHI to consult on the survey and to publicize its findings; and other published material regarding the survey.

In addition, there is considerable correspondence relating to the general activities of the Institute, as well as minutes and reports.

Series VII: Photographs and artifacts. Includes buttons and a poster produced to publicize the Mothers Health Organization and two miscellaneous photographs.

Series VIII: Audio recordings. Recordings of Calderone telephone conversations, speeches and dictated correspondence dating from his time with the World Health Organization, 1947-1949. Much of the subject matter appears to relate to WHO activities during an Egyptian cholera epidemic. The series consists of reel-to-reel audiotapes and the original dictation machine phonodiscs from which the tapes were made. Because archives staff was unable to listen to these recordings due to their fragile physical condition, description of the contents is taken from notes on the boxes.

Series IX: Scrapbooks. There are two scrapbooks. The first volume, entitled "Blueprint of the Mothers Health Organization: Democracy through Health" dates to 1941 and documents this program of the New York City Department of Health to improve childhood nutrition with the assistance of mothers. Contents include posters, flyers, pamphlets and other educational and promotional materials; newspaper clippings; photographs; buttons; and menus;

The second volume bears the title "Global Health," and was produced by the Publicity Committee of the American Public Health Association for its "Wartime Public Health Conference" held in New York, Oct. 12-14, 1943. Calderone was the committee's chairman. The volume records the planning and execution of the conference and includes correspondence, telegrams, newspaper clippings and photographs.

PROVENANCE:
Transfer from the Mailman School of Public Health, 1998 (acc. #98.12.22).

ACCESS:
Due to their physical condition, audiotapes are closed until transfer to a more stable medium.

SUBJECTS:

Calderone, Frank A., 1901-1987.
Chisholm, George Brock, b. 1896.
American Committee on Italian Migration.
Occupational Health Institute.
Welfare and Health Council of New York City.
World Health Organization.
Italian Americans.
Occupational health.
Public health - New York (State) - New York.

 

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Box 1

Series I: Personal Correspondence/Subject File  

1     Johns Hopkins University: yearbook, School of Public Health, 1936-1937;

           correspondence, 1956

2      Honors and Awards: correspondence and certificates, 1923-1956

3      McGrath, Raymond: correspondence, 1984

4      New York University: correspondence, 1930-1942

5      New York University: donations, correspondence, 1956-1957

6      Personal Correspondence, 1911-1958

7      Public Health Examinations: notes and exam papers, 1936-1937

8      Public Health, Nassau County, NY: notes, reports, newspaper clippings, 1937-
            1965

9      Speeches/Publications/Papers (prior to NYC Health Department position): typescripts and reprints, 1934-1937

 

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Series II: Professional Organizations  

10      American College of Preventive Medicine: correspondence and
           publications, 1955-1956

11     American Committee on Italian Migration (ACIM): correspondence, programs, membership lists, 1/1955- 4/1955

12      ACIM: correspondence, programs, membership lists, 5/1955-6/1955

13      ACIM: correspondence, programs, membership lists, 7/1955-3/1957

 

Box 2  

1      American Medical Association (AMA), Dues/Membership: correspondence,
           1955-1956

2      American Public Health Association (APHA): correspondence and newsletters, 1948-1956

3       Council on Aging: correspondence and conference materials, 1950-1951

4       Nassau Mental Health Association: correspondence and speeches, 1952-
           1956

5      New York City Tuberculosis and Health Association: correspondence and speeches, 1948-1951

6      Safety Council of New York City: correspondence, 1952

7      State of New York, Epidemiology/Nursing Study: notes, 1937

8      Tuberculosis Study among American Indians: correspondence and reports,
            1945

9      Volunteer Advisory Staff on Health, Mental Health, and Retardation, New
            York State Legislature: correspondence and reprints, 1965-1979

10      Welfare and Health Council of New York City: correspondence, minutes, and publications, 6/1949-10/1951

11      Welfare and Health Council of New York City: correspondence, minutes, and publications, 11/1951-8/1952

12      Welfare and Health Council of New York City: correspondence, minutes, and publications, 9/1952-3/1953

 

 Box 3

1      Welfare and Health Council of New York City: correspondence, minutes, and publications, 4/1953-4/1955

2      World Medical Association (WMA): correspondence, minutes, and publications, 1949-1956

3      WMA: newsletter, 1956-1958

4      WMA: Secretary-General's Letter, 1955-1957

 

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Series III: New York City Department of Health  

5      Bureau of Tuberculosis: budgets, personnel needs, statistics on clinic visits
            and x-rays,1942-1946

6      Child Hygiene/Dental Plan: budgets, personnel needs, physicians' school assignments, minutes of the Committee on Dental Hygiene, etc., 1939-1944

7      Diabetes Study: survey results, lesson plans, health education pamphlets,
            1937-1940

8      Diabetes Study: information requests, 1939 (1/3)

9      Diabetes Study: information requests, 1939 (2/3)

 

Box 4  

1      Diabetes Study: information requests, 1939 (3/3)

2      Diphtheria Study: notes, report to American Public Health Association, 1939

3      Diphtheria Study: reports on cultures, list of students [tested?],
            correspondence, 1938-1942

4      General Business and Correspondence, 1930-1941: annual report of the Lower East Side Health Center (1939); vital statistics; reports on "foreign markets in New York" and "the diet of Puerto Ricans," (1930)

5      General Business and Correspondence, 1942-1943: vital statistics, reports

6      Medical Care, Miscellaneous: correspondence and newsclippings, 1937-
           1953

7      Medical Care, Miscellaneous: correspondence and newsclippings, 1954-
           1970

 

 Box 5

1      Mothers Health Organization, General File: correspondence, "comprehensive outline of founding" and other reports, 1941

2      Mothers Health Organization, General File: summary report, 1942

3      Mothers Health Organization, Newspaper Clippings, 1941

4      Mothers Health Organization, Printed Material: correspondence and
            booklets, 1941-1942

5      Mothers Health Organization, Speeches: typescripts, 1941

6      Nutrition information inspired by the Mothers Health Organization: booklets,
            1942

7      Newspaper Clippings: general, 1938-1943: appt. as Secretary of Health
           Dept.

8      Parade of Nations: correspondence and lists of participants. 1939 (1/3)

9      Parade of Nations: correspondence and lists of participants, 1939 (2/3)

 

Box 6  

1      Parade of Nations: correspondence, 1939 (3/3)

2      Publications and Articles, 1939-1944

3      Publications and Articles, 1947-1953

4      Speeches and Interviews, 1939-1954

 

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Series IV: World Health Organization (WHO)  

5       Appointment by Brock Chisholm: correspondence, 1946-1948

6       Business and Identification Cards, 1944-1949

7       Correspondence (NYC-Geneva), 1947-1948

8       Correspondence (NYC-Geneva), 1949

9       Geneva Apartment: correspondence, leases, and receipts, 1948

 

Box 7  

1      Miscellaneous publications: booklets, 1951-1975

2      Newspaper clippings, 1946-1949

3      Publications and Articles written during WHO Tenure: correspondence and typescripts, 1947-1953

4      Speeches and Interviews: correspondence and transcripts, 1/1947-9/1948

5      Speeches and Interviews: correspondence and transcripts, 12/1948-2/1949

6      Speeches and Interviews: correspondence and transcripts, 3/1949-10/1949

7      Speeches and Interviews: correspondence and transcripts, 11/1949-
           10/1952

8       Termination: press releases and correspondence, 1946-1950

 

Box 8  

1       WHO Organizational Structure: handbook, 1949

 

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Series V: United Nations, Medical Director  

2      Miscellaneous United Nations materials: typescript, 1952

3-4   Miscellaneous United Nations materials: handbook, UN Health Services, including policies, organizational structure, clinic floor plan, etc., c.1953

5      Miscellaneous United Nations materials: "Organization of the Secretariat:
           Report of the Secretary-General's Survey Group," 1954; copy of
           Calderone's letter of resignation, Nov. 15, 1954 as published in
           Industrial Medicine and Surgery

 

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Series VI: Occupational Health Institute  

6     General information: report and reprints, 1953-1955

7      [16th] Annual Congress on Industrial Health (AMA Convention, Detroit,
            1/1956): correspondence and programs, 1955-1956

8      Correspondence, 2/1955-8/1955

 

Box 9  

1      Correspondence, 9/1/1955-10/15/1955

2      Correspondence, 10/17/1955-11/30/1955

3      Correspondence, 12/1955

4      Correspondence, 1/1956

5      Correspondence, 2/1956-3/1956

6      Correspondence, 4/1956-8/1956

 

Box 10  

1      Correspondence, 9/1956-12/1956

2      Correspondence, 1957

3      "Economics of Preventive Medicine: A Synthesis of Opinions:" correspondence with Edward Bernays, 1955-1956

4      "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Survey set-up: sample letters and mailing lists, 1956

5      "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Survey responses: A-B
            correspondence, 1955

6      "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Survey responses: C-F correspondence, 1955-1956

7       "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Survey responses: G-H
           correspondence, 1955

 

Box 11  

1       "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Survey responses: I-L
           correspondence, 1955

2       "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Survey responses: M-N correspondence, 1955

3       "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Survey responses: O-R
           correspondence, 1955

4       "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Survey responses: S-T
           correspondence, 1955

5       "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Survey responses: U-Z
           correspondence, 1955

6      "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Survey notes: mailing lists, correspondence, notes, 1955-1956

 

Box 12  

1      "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Speech at NYU (2/28/1956): correspondence, reply cards, and typescripts, 1955-1956 (1/2)

2      "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Speech at NYU (2/28/1956): correspondence, reply cards, and typescripts, 1955-1956 (2/2)

3      "Economics of Preventive Medicine," articles about and publications of survey: correspondence, reprints, and magazines, 1955-1956

4      "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Requests for reprints: A-V correspondence, 1954-1955

5      "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Reactions to article: A-G
           correspondence, 1956

6       "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Reactions to article: H-M
           correspondence, 1956

7       "Economics of Preventive Medicine," Reactions to article: N-T
           correspondence, 1956

 

Box 13  

1      "Economics of Preventive Medicine:" Reactions to article: U-W correspondence, 1956

2      Industrial Medical Association (IMA), general information: correspondence and programs, 1955-1957

3       National Industrial Health Conference (Philadelphia, 4/1956):
           correspondence, notes, and typescripts, 1956

4       Occupational Health Institute (OHI) Meeting Reports: reports and minutes, 4/1955-8/1955

5      OHI Meeting Reports: reports and minutes, 10/1955-12/1955

6      OHI Meeting Reports: reports and minutes, 1/1956-5/1956

7      OHI Meeting Reports: reports and minutes, 6/1956-10/1956

8      OHI Meeting Reports: reports and minutes, 1957

9       Windowless and Airless Factories Study: correspondence, 1956

 

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Series VII: Photographs and artifacts  

10      Photographs: Groups, "The Ubiquiteers," 1936/37

11      Photographs: Marchisio, Juvenal

12      Buttons: Mothers Health Organization

 

[In Oversize Photographs and Prints]  

MC 1-7:4 Mothers Health Organization Poster, 1941

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Series VIII: Audio Recordings

 

Box 14  

21 audiotapes: These are primarily telephone conversations and speeches, 10/1947-11/1947, related to the cholera outbreak in Egypt at that time. Tapes 4 and 19 of 23 are missing. 

54 phonodiscs: Mostly 10/1947-12/1947, speeches, dictated letters, and telephone conversations. Only discs 1-46 are numbered. 

[In Phonodiscs (12")]  

8 Phonodiscs, speeches by or interviews with Calderone, 11/1949-12/1949  

1-9 Interview, November 22, 1949; Parts 1, 3

1-10 Interview, November 22, 1949; Parts 2, 4

1-11 Interview, November 22, 1949; Parts 5, 7

1-12 Interview, November 22, 1949; Parts 6, 8

1-13 Interview, November 22, 1949; Parts 2, 4, copy 2

1-14 Interview, November 22, 1949; Parts 5, 6, copy 2

1-15 "Interview of Dr., Frank A. Calderone, UN Today, Dec. 28th, 1949;" Part 1

1-16 "Interview of Dr., Frank A. Calderone, UN Today, Dec. 28th, 1949;"Part 3

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Series IX: Scrapbooks

In Map Case 1:4:

"Global Health" 1 vol., 28 ½" x 26 ½", 1943  

"Blueprint of the Mothers Health Organization" 1 vol., 23" x 17 ¾", 1941

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