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Documents on the origin and development of the Tuskegee syphilis study
Abstract
Copies of articles, reports and correspondence compiled for the 1972-1973 ad hoc advisory panel commissioned to investigate the United States Public Health Service Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male at Tuskegee and Macon County, Alabama.
Dates
- Creation: 1921-1973
Extent
2.1 Linear Feet (5 boxes)
Creator
- United States. Tuskegee Syphilis Study Ad Hoc Advisory Panel (Organization)
Physical Location
Materials stored onsite. History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine
Language of Materials
Collection materials primarily in English
Restrictions
No restrictions on access.
Copyright and Re-use Information
Copyright status is unknown. Archival collections often contain mixed copyrights; while NLM is the owner of the physical items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. It is the user's responsibility to research and understand any applicable copyright and re-publication rights not allowed by fair use. NLM does not grant permissions to publish.
Material from the Fisk University Archives may only be reproduced with the written permission of their librarian; permission to digitize and re-use provided to NLM courtesy Fisk University, John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library, Special Collections, Julius Rosenwald Fund Archives. The dissertation by Mrs. Myrtle Winters and the manuscript by Dr. Leonard J. Goldwater may only be reproduced with their permission.
Privacy Information
Archives and manuscript collections may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in any collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications for which the National Library of Medicine assumes no responsibility.
Historical Note
Beginning in 1932, the Public Health Service began a study of the effects of untreated syphilis on Black men in Macon County, Alabama. At the time, the study was officially named "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male", however in the 21st century the term preferred by the designated community Voices For Our Fathers Legacy Foundation is "United States Public Health Service Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male at Tuskegee and Macon County, Alabama."
On August 24, 1972 Merlin K. DuVal, M.D., Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, announced the appointment of an ad hoc panel headed by Broadus N. Butler, president of Dillard University, to investigate the study. The panel was empowered to explore whether the study was justified, whether it should be continued, and if existing H.E.W. regulations properly protected the rights of patients. The final report of the panel was delivered on April 28, 1973. One month later the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs officially declared the end of the study.
Collection Summary
The collection represents a broad variety of historical documents and other papers collected by the panel during the course of its investigation. In 1973 a copy of the working papers of the panel was deposited in the National Library of Medicine by Dr. R. C. Backus, the Executive Secretary of the Tuskegee Syphilis Ad Hoc Advisory panel. These working papers were originally titled by the panel administrators as "Documents on the origin and development of the Tuskegee syphilis study".
The collection consist largely of photocopies of externally-sourced background materials originally held in twelve binders. The material was organized by the panel into ten general groupings identified in the general index to the papers. An item-level index to the material was also prepared. In the upper right hand corner of each page of the index is found a roman numeral control number, indicating the major grouping in which the material belongs, and the box number in which the material is found. Each entry in the finding aid is preceded by this index number.
Abstract
Copies of articles, reports and correspondence compiled for the 1972-1973 ad hoc advisory panel commissioned to investigate the United States Public Health Service Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male at Tuskegee and Macon County, Alabama.
Physical Location
Materials stored onsite. History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine
Provenance
Gift, Dr. R.C. Backus, Executive Secretary, Tuskegee Syphilis Ad Hoc Advisory Panel, 1973. Accession #162.
General
- Processed by
- Peter B. Hirtle; Jim Labosier
- Re-Processing Completed
- 2004
- Encoded by
- Jim Labosier
Creator
- United States. Tuskegee Syphilis Study Ad Hoc Advisory Panel (Organization)
Subject
- Backus, R.C. (Person)
- Butler, Broadus N. (Person)
- Eagle, Jacqueline (Person)
- Lee, Bernice (Person)
- Rawles, Robert (Person)
- Title
- Finding Aid to the Documents on the origin and development of the Tuskegee syphilis study, 1921-1973
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- Archives and Modern Manuscripts Program, History of Medicine Division
- Date
- 2000
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latn
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English
- Edition statement
- 1.0
Collecting Area Details
Part of the Archives and Modern Manuscripts Collections Collecting Area
8600 Rockville Pike
Bldg 38/1E-21, MSC 3819
Bethesda MD 20894 US
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