Series 10: Gorgas Memorial Laboratory History in Panama, 1929-1990

This series describes the history of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory in Panama from its inception and dedication to the purchases of lands and buildings for the co-sponsored research facility by the United States and the Republic of Panama. There are also original documents on the license and operations of the laboratory explaining the boundaries of lands, purchase agreements and legal deeds. The lands used for gathering information on tropical topography, geography, animals familiar to the region and people of that region investigated became important resources to GML scientists and the use of tropical regions such as those named in the subseries "GML Field Stations" were identified as areas of concern in parasitic diseases. There is also evidence that the GML Director (Panama) was proactive in these contractual agreements, For instance in several of the 'Public Deeds' records Herbert C. Clark is designated as the representative for GML, as well as any comments he made on GMITP's behalf. This is also seen in the folder titled "Background Information" detailing the early conception of the role the laboratory would play in fighting yellow fever, malaria and other parasitic diseases.

The subseries entitled "The Rand Insectary" documents the dedication ceremony for the research building that funds by James H. Rand (Colonial Research Institute) donated to assist GML in providing greater technical and scientific structure to its research center. The insectary building was a facility that had a controlled temperature environment, special lighting, areas for incubation for controlled experiments, and extra laboratory space. The series encompasses activity from 1929-1990, but does not contain the documents of the Fogarty International Center (FIC), which became the managing overseer for GMITP/GML in 1970. The FIC's involvement and history may be found in the series entitled "Fogarty International Center".