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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 1750 items (7 linear feet) |
| Abstract | Milton J. Rosenau was commissioned as an assistant surgeon in the United States Marine Hospital Service (now the United States Public Health Service) in 1890. In 1899, he was appointed director of the Hygienic Laboratory of that service. He was instrumental in 1922 in the establishment of the Harvard University School of Public Health and, in 1940, became first dean of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina. The collection includes correspondence, writings, lecture notes, pictures, and other items documenting Rosenau's career as a public health official, chiefly 1900-1924. His activities at the Marine Hospital Service, the Hygienic Laboratory, and Harvard University are covered, as is his work in such areas as milk hygiene, typhoid fever, other diseases, and relief to European Jews. Very little material relates to Rosenau's private life or to his years at the University of North Carolina. |
| Creator | Rosenau, M. J. (Milton Joseph), 1869-1946. |
| Curatorial Unit | Southern Historical Collection |
| Language | English. |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Biographical Information
Milton Joseph Rosenau was born in Philadelphia, Penn., 1 January 1869, the son of Matilda Blitz and Nathan Rosenau. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1889 and completed further studies in Paris, Vienna, and Berlin.
In 1890, Rosenau was commissioned as an assistant surgeon in the United States Marine Hospital Service (now the United States Public Health Service). In 1899, he was appointed director of the Hygienic Laboratory of the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. Rosenau increased both the scope and the budget of the laboratory. During his directorship, he and others at the laboratory studied the epidemiology of typhoid fever, yellow fever, malaria, botulism, and a number of other diseases. He also worked on developing new germicides and germicidal techniques, including pasteurization of milk.
In 1909, Rosenau became the first professor of preventive medicine at Harvard University Medical School. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology School for Health Officers in 1919 and the Harvard University School of Public Health in 1922. During this period, Rosenau also served on the Massachusetts State Board of Health.
In 1935, at age 65, Rosenau became director of the University of North Carolina Division of Public Health. In 1940, the School of Public Health was created with Rosenau as its dean.
Rosenau married Myra Frank on 16 July 1900. Myra Frank Rosenau died in 1930, and Rosenau married Maud Heilner Tenner on 13 January 1935.
Rosenau died in Chapel Hill, N.C., on 9 April 1946.
Rosenau's publications include Preventive Medicine and Hygiene (1913), the standard text for its time; Disinfection and Disinfectants: A Practical Guide for Sanitarians, Health and Quarantine Officers (1902); and The Milk Question (1912).
(Source: Dictionary of American Biography)
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Scope and Content
The M. J. Rosenau papers include correspondence, writings, lecture notes, pictures, and other items documenting Rosenau's career as a public health official, chiefly 1900-1924. His activities at the United States Marine Hospital Service, the United States Hygienic Laboratory, and Harvard University are covered, as is his work in such areas as milk hygiene, typhoid fever, other diseases, and relief to European Jews. Very little material relates to Rosenau's private life or to his years at the University of North Carolina.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Loose Correspondence, 1915-1940 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence relates to many functions Rosenau performed as a public health officer. Letters document his work at a number of laboratories in the Northeast, at epidemic sites throughout the United States, at East Coast naval stations during World War I,in Europe and the Middle East with Jewish relief agencies following World War I, and as an adviser on public health matters.
Note that correspondence from earlier years is bound into the volumes in Series 2.
| Folder 1 |
1915-1916 |
| Folder 2 |
1917 |
| Folder 3 |
1918 |
| Folder 4 |
1919 |
| Folder 5 |
1920-1923 |
| Folder 6 |
1924-1940 and undated |
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Series 2. Letterbooks, 1889-1927.
Arrangement: roughly chronological.
Letterbook volumes that, in general, follow the course of Rosenau's career. The chronology within the volumes is, at best, approximate, and the volumes themselves overlap chornologically. Note that descriptions are not all-inclusive. They are intended to give a general idea of volume contents. Volumes 1-17 may contain correspondence, telegrams, newspaper clippings, copies of articles, and photographs. Almost all of these volumes contain numerous reprints of articles written by Rosenau. Volumes 18-21 are chiefly handwritten notes made by Rosenau on his travels.
Folder 7-14
Folder 7Folder 8Folder 9Folder 10Folder 11Folder 12Folder 13Folder 14 |
Volume 1: 9 July 1889-19 October 1897Arranged in reverse chronological order. Contains letters, telegrams, and newspaper clippings relating to Rosenau's early career with the United States Marine Hospital Service (later the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service). Included are items relating to the early history of public health in the United States; disinfection and quarantine methods used against epidemic diseases during the 1890s; efforts in Hamburg, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium, in 1893 to prevent the spread of cholera to the United States; the conflict between federal and local authorities over quarantine procedures in San Francisco, 1894-1897; and cases of variola among immigrants arriving in San Francisco during those years. |
Folder 15-23
Folder 15Folder 16Folder 17Folder 18Folder 19Folder 20Folder 21Folder 22Folder 23 |
Volume 2: 12 April 1897-28 June 1902Materials similar to those in volume 1, but also a few photographs. Included is continuing discussion of conflicts between federal and local quarantine authorities in San Francisco; alleged mistreatment of Chinese imigrants by federal quarantine officers, including mention of yellow fever, 1897, and smallpox, 1898; Rosenau's move to Washington, D.C., in October 1898, where he was supposed to conduct bacteriological research for the United States Marine Hospital Service, but wound up advising officials in Alexandria, Va., about smallpox; the outbreak of diseases causing the quarantining of Cuban and Puerto Rican ports, including Rosenau's service as chief quarantine officer at Santiago, Cuba; his return to Washington, where, in early 1900, he became director of the Hygienic Laboratory; his participation in the International Congress of Medicine in Paris, 1900, and subsequent study at the Pasteur Institute; and his service as delegate to the Mexico City meeting of the Conference of American States, 1901. |
| Folder 23a |
Volume 3: 1 February 1902-25 January 1904"Dr. Rosenau's Private Letter Book": Contains copies of mostly routine letters written while Rosenau was director of the Hygienic Laboratory. Some letters relate to Disinfection and Disinfectants (1902) and efforts to promote it. Letters near the end of the volume tend to discuss research projects. Also included is a list of Rosenau's publications through 1902. See also volume 4. |
Folder 24-33
Folder 24Folder 25Folder 26Folder 27Folder 28Folder 29Folder 30Folder 31Folder 32Folder 33 |
Volume 4: 25 April 1902-5 May 1903Arranged in rough reverse chronological order. Companion to volume 3. Chiefly letters written to Rosenau, many relating to letters in volume 3. Most letters are routine, but there are a few that discuss the work of the Special Committee on Diptheria Antitoxin, the admission of antitoxin to the United States Pharmacopeia, and research work of Rosenau's colleagues. Frequent correspondents are Harry Wiel (lymphatics), Donald H. Currie (plague), H. B. Parker, Joseph McFarland, Joseph P. Remmington, G. G. Kenyoun, and Henry Carter. |
Folder 34-41
Folder 34Folder 35Folder 36Folder 37Folder 38Folder 39Folder 40Folder 41 |
Volume 5: 17 February 1902-28 March 1904Includes correspondence, mostly routine; photographs; clippings; articles; and reports to the Public Health and Marine Hospital, many of which supplement information contained in letters in volume 6. Among the items are the Report on the Origin and Prevalence of Leprosy, 1902; the Congressional act changing the name of the United States Marine Hospital Service to the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, 19 May 1902; Regulations for the Sale of Viruses, Serums, Toxins, and Analagous Products in the District of Columbia, etc. , 1903; clippings about the diptheria antitoxin; the official report of the Second Working Party of the Yellow Fever Institute, 1903, of which Rosenau was chair; and materials relating to Rosenau's laboratory course in pathology and bacteriology, 1904. |
Folder 42-50
Folder 42Folder 43Folder 44Folder 45Folder 46Folder 47Folder 48Folder 49Folder 50 |
Volume 6: 2 May 1903-21 August 1904Arranged in reverse chronological order. Contains letters and telegrams to Rosenau. Themes overlap with volumes 4 and 5, but items in this volume tend to be more substantive. Included are letters relating to requests for advice and samples from health officers, doctors, and researchers; meetings of the antitoxin Committee of the United States Pharmacopeia and of the Special Committee on Diptheria Antitoxin; a proposed supplement to the British edition of Disinfection and Disinfectants (Francis J. Allan, 16 May and 12 June 1903); testing the purity of serums by the Hygienic Laboratory; yellow fever (Herman B. Parker, T. B. McClintic, Joseph Golberger, H. R. Carter); plague (Donald H. Currie, 21 May and 10 December 1903); malaria, elephantiasis, and plague in Calcutta, India (E. K. Sprague, 26 November 1903); typhoid in Southport, N.C. (B. S. Warren 25 July 1903); research on tuberculosis; the need for a hygienic laboratory in New Orleans (B. P. Wertenbaker, 26 October 1903). There is also frequent correspondence with Herbert D. Pease, E. M. Houghton, Thomas Craig, G. G. Kenyoun, and Joseph McFarland. |
| Folder 51 |
Volume 7: 31 August-18 November 1903Arranged in reverse chronological order. Twenty-four letters and telegrams received by Rosenau while he was in Vera Cruz with the Second Working Party of the Yellow Fever Institute, mostly from colleagues at the Hygienic Laboratory in Washington and relating to procedural matters, especially to the alleged misconduct of Herman B. Parker in Vera Cruz. Several letters mention the outbreak of typhoid fever at Lexington, Va., during October 1903. Correspondents include Herman B. Parker, John F. Anderson, Walter Wyman, T. B. McClintric, and E. M. Houghton. |
Folder 52-57
Folder 52Folder 53Folder 54Folder 55Folder 56Folder 57 |
Volume 8: 20 May 1904-January 1907Chiefly newspaper clippings, reprints of articles, government pamphlets, and routine directives from the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. Materials reflect the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service's concern with yellow fever, tuberculosis, and leprosy. Included are the final report of the Second Working Party of the Yellow Fever Institute; a September 1905 directive sending Rosenau to New Orleans as part of the Third Working Party and a report and other materials relating to that group; and items relating to the admission of the diptheria antitoxin to the United States Parmacopeia and concern with inspecting the sera toxins (20 May 1904, 25 January and 8 June 1905). Also included are materials relating to the Hygienic Laboratory; the history of the United States Marine Hospital Service; and clippings from reports of profession meetings, including those of the American Medical Association, the Society of American Bacteriologists, and the National Mosquito Extermination Society. |
Folder 58-63
Folder 58Folder 59Folder 60Folder 61Folder 62Folder 63 |
Volume 9: 30 March 1906-17 August 1907Newspaper clippings, printed articles, and other items chiefly relating to two government publications: A Study of the Cause of Sudden Death Following the Injection of Horse Serum (Rosenau and Anderson, April 1906) and Report on the Origin and Prevalence of Typhoid Fever in the District of Columbia (Rosenau, Lunsden, and Kastle, February 1907). A United States Public Health and Marine Hospital directive of 27 June 1906 ordered Rosenau to study why typhoid fever had been so prevalent in Washington, D.C., in the year prior to June 1906. Although the study revealed that only a minority of cases could be attributed to impure water and milk, the publicity sparked campagins to clean up water and milk supplies. Many of the clipings deal with the debate over these clean-up efforts. |
Folder 64-69
Folder 64Folder 65Folder 66Folder 67Folder 68Folder 69 |
Volume 10: August 1906-December 1907Chiefly newspaper clippings, reprints of articles (six between October 1906 and November 1907 by Rosenau and John F. Anderson), and official directives to Rosenau from the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. Themes include typhoid in milk and water supplies Washington, D.C.; the effectiveness of the smallpox vaccine, March 1907; research on typoid fever; and concern with inspection of commercial manufacturers of sera, toxins, etc. |
Folder 70-78
Folder 70Folder 71Folder 72Folder 73Folder 74Folder 75Folder 76Folder 77Folder 78 |
Volume 11: January 1908-January 1909Chiefly newspaper clippings, reprints of articles, reports from professional meetings, and official directives from the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. Many items bear on typhoid fever and contamination in milk, including comments on the Hygienic Laboratory's report Milk and its Relation to the Public Health. A few items reflect the government's growing concern with tuberculosis. There are also materials relating to the reorganization and expansion of the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. |
Folder 79-88
Folder 79Folder 80Folder 81Folder 82Folder 83Folder 84Folder 85Folder 86Folder 87Folder 88 |
Volume 12: 7 February 1908-22 August 1909Chiefly newspaper and magazine clippings, reprints of articles, and a sprinking of correspondence. Themes include tuberculosis; typhoid fever; hoof and mouth disease; standardization of toxins, etc., and the inspection of commercial laboratories; and the reorganization of the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. Includes one letter, 18 July 1907, from John S. Fulton of the International Congress on Tuberculosis to Rosenau. |
Folder 89-96
Folder 89Folder 90Folder 91Folder 92Folder 93Folder 94Folder 95Folder 96 |
Volume 13: 17 April 1909-12 May 1910Newspaper and magazine clippings, reprints of articles, programs from medical meetings, official directives from the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, and a sprinkling of correspondence. Much material deals with Rosenau's appointment as director of the newly established Department of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene at the Harvard Medical School and his resignation from the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. There is much material relating to themes from previous volumes and adding new themes. These include the study of pellagra and hookworm disease, a 1910 meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Presidnets that emphasized the importance or preventive medicine in prolonging life, and milk pasturization. Materials reflect increased tension relating to the importance of the study of public health and an increased criticism of health conditions in the United States and government efforts to amelioriate them. |
Folder 97-103
Folder 97Folder 98Folder 99Folder 100Folder 101Folder 102Folder 103 |
Volume 14: 24 May 1910-August 1912With this volume, materials tend to become less research oriented and more concerned with efforts by Rosenau and others to popularize the fundamental concepts of public health. There is, however, continued concern about milk, typhoid fever, smallpox, the standardization and inspection of toxins, and other issues. These themes, however, are increasingly within the context of Boston and of the Massachusetts Board of Health. Pure milk in Massachusetts is important, as Rosenau quickly became involved with this topic after his move, but there are also materials relating to pure milk in other parts of the country. Also included are materials relating to cholera, October 1910; to the establishment of the degree of Doctor of Public Health at Harvard, June 1910, and of a department of preventive medicine at Washington University in St. Louis; and litigation between the United States government and an egg producer in which Rosenau testified. Note that attached to a letter of 21 July 1910 is a list of all of Rosenau's assignments during his tenure at the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. Many reprints of articles are included. |
Folder 104-112
Folder 104Folder 105Folder 106Folder 107Folder 108Folder 109Folder 110Folder 111Folder 112 |
Volume 15: 24 October 1911-31 October 1916Included is material bearing on almost all of Rosenau's areas of interest. There is also routine correspodnence, much of it relating to his increasing load of meetings and speaking engagements. Most materials relate, however, to two areas of research: the milk question and Rosenau's research on the role of the stable fly in the transmission of poliomyelitis and of infantile paralysis, which includes a dispute among researchers at Harvard and elsewhere over who had priority in the discovery of the stable fly's role in infantile paralysis. Also included are numerous articles and reprints of articles. |
Folder 113-123
Folder 113Folder 114Folder 115Folder 116Folder 117Folder 118Folder 119Folder 120Folder 121Folder 122Folder 123 |
Volume 16: 1 October 1912-28 October 1920 (bulk 1913-1914)Contains correspondence, newspaper and magazine clippings, articles and reprints of articles, and several bills and acts of the Massachusetts State Legislature. Most items relate to health issues in Massachusetts. Clippings from April 1913 recount Rosenau's appointment to the Massachusetts State Board of Health, which came under heavy criticism for its handling of the tonsilitis epidemic then raging. Also included are items relating to Rosenau's winning the American Gold Medal, July 1913; criticism of his theories on infantile paralysis, August-September 1913; the opening of the School for Health Officers, operated jointly by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 29 September 1913; Rosenau's landmark speech "Progress and Problems in Preventive Medicine", 16 October 1913; the publication of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene, 1913; Rosenau's testimony as an expert witness in for the federal government in a case of violation of the Insecticide Act of 1910; and the reorganization of the Massachusetts State Board of Health. |
Folder 124-138
Folder 124Folder 125Folder 126Folder 127Folder 128Folder 129Folder 130Folder 131Folder 132Folder 133Folder 134Folder 135Folder 136Folder 137Folder 138 |
Volume 17: 11 November 1913-7 January 1917 (bulk 1914-1915)Some of these materials appear to have been left over after the first 16 volumes were compiled. Much material overlaps both thematically and chronologically with material in volume 16. Included are items relating to the revamping of the Massachusetts State Board of Health and Rosenau's appointment to the Massachusetts Health Council, December 1914; his resignation from the Health Council to accept an appointment as pathologist with the Massachusetts State Department of Health, January 1915; a projected Commission on the Social Survey of Jewish Conditions in Palestine, summer 1914; Rosenau's travel in war-torn Europe in 1914 (see also volume 18); the national epidemic of foot and mouth disease caused perhaps by infected hog cholera serum used at the Chicago stockyards, November 1914; pure milk, especially bottling, capping, labeling, and advertising issues, some relating to the use of Rosenenau's paper The Milk Question by a commercial bottler, March 1915; Rosenau's service to the United States Department of Agriculture in a case about Jamaica Bay oysters, December 1915-March 1916; and the closing of the Harvard Medical School of China, October 1916. Many articles and reprints of articles are also included. |
Folder 139-142
Folder 139Folder 140Folder 141Folder 142 |
Volume 18: Travel log, July-August 1914Daily log of Rosenau's travels in Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Germany, July-August 1914. Detained in Frankfort for the first three weeks ofthe war, he recounted the outbreak of World War I from the view point of an American tourist. Included are a few copies of German newspapers. |
Folder 143-148
Folder 143Folder 144Folder 145Folder 146Folder 147Folder 148 |
Volume 19-20: Travel log, 1917-1919Log of a trip to eastern Europe and ports of Russia that Rosenau made with the Jewish Relief Committee, summer 1922. Also included are several stray items, 1917-1919, and paper money from Eastern Europe. |
Folder 149-151
Folder 149Folder 150Folder 151 |
Volume 21: Daily log of Rosenau's travels through Palestine, June-July 1927Included is information on health conditions in the areas that he visited. |
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Series 3. Writings, circa 1900-1930.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Writings by Rosenau, and a few writings about Rosenau or matters of interest to him.
| Folder 152 |
Rosenau: "All About Milk" |
| Folder 153 |
Rosenau: American Jewish Relief Association material |
| Folder 154 |
Rosenau: "Argument That Definition of Fungicide in Law Covers Disinfectants" |
| Folder 155 |
Rosenau: "Botulism" |
Rosenau: "Fads and Fancies in Preventive Medicine and Public Health" |
|
Rosenau: "Food Poisoning" |
|
Rosenau: "The Four roads of Public Health" |
|
Rosenau: "Mental Allergy" |
|
Rosenau: "Mountain Peaks and Roads of Public Health" |
|
Folder 156-157
Folder 156Folder 157 |
Rosenau: "New Lamps for Old" |
Folder 158-159
Folder 158Folder 159 |
Rosenau: "Sanitary Code of the Jews" |
| Folder 160 |
Rosenau: "Serendipity" and "Serendipity in Science" |
| Folder 161 |
Rosenau: Typhoid epidemic, Washington, D.C., 1906, material |
| Folder 162 |
Rosenau: "Vitamins in Milk" |
| Folder 163 |
Writings by others |
| Folder 164 |
Graphs of death rates by starvation in the Ukraine, 1922 |
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Series 4. Other Items, circa 1890-1940.
Arrangement: by type.
Certificates, chiefly showing membership in medical societies; clippings; financial items, chiefly royalty statements, 1918-1922; and invitations and programs.
| Folder 165 |
Certificates (also OP-4289) |
| Folder 166 |
Clippings |
| Folder 167 |
Financial materials |
| Folder 168 |
Invitations and programs |
| Oversize Paper OP-4289/1 |
Delta Omega certificate, 1928 |
| Oversize Paper OP-4289/2 |
State of North Carolina Board of Medical Examiners certificate, 1937 |
| Oversize Paper OP-4289/3 |
New York World's Fair advisory committee certificate, 1939 |
| Oversize Paper Folder OPF-4289/2 |
Diplomas, certificates, and awards |
| Extra Oversize Paper Folder XOPF-4289/1 |
Certificate, 1914 |
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Series 4A. Other Items, 1903-1909 (Addition of 2016).
Acquisitions Information: Transferred from University Archives in July 2016 (Acc. 102705).
| Folder 203 |
Appointment certificate, 1903"I have the honor to inform you that you have been appointed a Member of the Committee of the American Public Health Association, on Plague." |
| Folder 204 |
Appointment certificate, 1904"I have the honor to inform you that you have been appointed a Member of the Committee of the American Public Health Association, on Etiology of Yellow Fever." |
| Oversize Paper OP-4289/4 |
Certificate, 1909"Office of the President and Fellows of Harvard College...you were elected Professor of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene." |
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Series 5. Pictures, 1871-1940.
Pictures of Rosenau and other pictures collected by him, including a picture album of about 200 pictures. Many pictures are annotated "Rosenau's camera," which may explain why Rosenau is absent from a number of group pictures. Includes 17 mages depicting daily life, especially of Jews, in Palestine and trans-Jordan and the destruction caused by World War I and by a 1927 earthquake, circa 1920-1927
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Series 6. Lecture Notes, circa 1935-1940.
Arrangement: roughly by subject.
Notes for Rosenau's lectures on epidemiology, including material relating to such specialities as food poisoning, history of public health, and milk.
Folder 169-202
Folder 169Folder 170Folder 171Folder 172Folder 173Folder 174Folder 175Folder 176Folder 177Folder 178Folder 179Folder 180Folder 181Folder 182Folder 183Folder 184Folder 185Folder 186Folder 187Folder 188Folder 189Folder 190Folder 191Folder 192Folder 193Folder 194Folder 195Folder 196Folder 197Folder 198Folder 199Folder 200Folder 201Folder 202 |
Lecture notes |
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Items Separated
Photographs (P-4289/1 through P-4289/66)
Oversize Photographs (OP-P-4289/9; OP-P-4289/12; OP-P-4289/13; OP-P-4289/18; OP-P-4289/22; OP-P-4289/47; and OP-P-4289/48)
Photograph Album (PA-4289/1)
Oversize papers (OP-4289/1 through OP-4289/4, OPF-4289/2, XOPF-4289/1)
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