Kathryn R. Mahaffey Papers

The collection contains articles and scientific writings, professional meetings and conference materials, reports, correspondence, administrative records, electronic records, and awards, documenting Mahaffey’s research and career relating to environmental contaminants ingested by humans primarily through food. Subjects include environmental exposure and pollution, food contamination, endocrine disruptors, lead poisoning and toxicity, mercury poisoning and toxicity, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The bulk of the collection consists of meeting and conference files, reports, subject research files, and secondary research articles. There is little personal or biographical content.

Series 1: Personal and Biographical, is arranged chronologically; a minimal series containing one award, curriculum vitae and biographical sketches, photographs from a working trip to Japan, and correspondence relating to her appointment as an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins.

Series 2: Correspondence, is arranged alphabetically by folder title; beyond two identified correspondents, none of the collection was originally arranged as correspondence. The remaining folders are small sets of general correspondence emails which were segregated from unfoldered material.

Series 3: Research Administration, is arranged alphabetically by folder title; this small collection of material mostly documents contracts for research with entities such as Johns Hopkins University, the state of Wisconsin, and Westat, and statistical data while Dr. Mahaffey worked with NIOSH and FDA. It also contains a late 1990s contacts list.

Series 4: Meetings and Conferences, is arranged chronologically by conference date; as an FDA official, Dr. Mahaffey participated in meetings both organized within the FDA and by international environmental health organizations. She kept copies of agendas and programs though very little personal documentation about her activities as an attendee. Of particular note is a set of 39 audiocassettes preserving the discussions held in several sessions at the Mercury and Food Supply Conference held in April 2004.

Series 5: Reports, is arranged alphabetically by folder title; it comprises a wide range of reports evaluating the effects of environmental contaminants on human quality of life. These originate from local to national agencies, both in the U.S. and internationally.

Series 6: Speeches/Presentations, is arranged chronologically by date of speech or presentation; this collection of material, rather than containing speech texts, is almost exclusively slides or transparent overhead sheets which accompanied Dr. Mahaffey’s public presentations.

Series 7: Writings, is arranged chronologically by publication date; contains over 70 scientific articles written or co-written by Dr. Mahaffey.

Series 8: Subject Research Files, is arranged alphabetically by folder title; this series contains information gathered by Dr. Mahaffey about specific environmental topics. Different than the Reports series, the content of this material, though sometimes articles, is largely data driven information. Endocrine disruption, fish consumption, mercury, and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) are the most common.

Series 9: Secondary Research Articles, is arranged alphabetically by folder title; the series date range reflects the dates of the information represented, not the dates of the physical materials. Unlike reports or subject research, this series holds reprints or photocopied articles only. The contents differ from Subject Research series in that they are comprised entirely of scientific articles relating to a general topic of concern. Topics of greater interest receive more delineated attention. For subjects such as mercury, for example, Dr. Mahaffey gathered information not just generally but also according to specific subsets of concern (for instance, "Mercury – neurotoxicity"; "Mercury – toxicity"). Large sections of this series are devoted to lead, mercury, endocrine disruption, and fish consumption.

Series 10: Computer files, is arranged chronologically with the creator's subdirectory structure; it comprises a range of files regarding research, presentations, conferences, awards, and writings related to Dr. Mahaffey's work on mercury studies.