Antonia C. Novello Papers

Speeches, presentations, subject files, electronic born digital files, professional conference and meeting materials, awards, and personal biographical materials document Dr. Antonia Novello's professional public health and public service career. The largest portion of the collection relates to Novello's tenure as New York State Commissioner of Health; there is little correspondence or personal materials in the collection. The collection is primarily arranged chronologically according to Novello's professional career path.

Series 5: New York State Commissioner of Health 1999-2006, is the era best represented in the collection. Conference files detail meetings with state health officials, those devoted to AIDS and women’s and minority health and advancement, as well as work with the Special Olympics. Over seven hundred speeches touch upon these same subjects plus press conferences and announcements relating to New York state public health, state health programs, commencements, and acceptance of awards. Subject files largely reflect the same topics as the meetings attended and speeches given, with a few isolated files dealing with particular public health issues. A few articles she authored from this period address HIV and healthcare disparities.

Series 1: Personal and Biographical 1981-2008, contains various versions of her CVs and biographical sketches documenting her accrued experiences and honors from 1981 until her retirement. There is also some material from a few conferences attended and speeches given after retirement along with a copy of a dissertation proposal submitted to Johns Hopkins University in 2004. Lastly is an assemblage of awards, certificates, and attendant artifacts presented to Dr. Novello from 1990 to 2006.

Most of this material in Series 2: Early Professional Activities 1969-1990, stems from Dr. Novello's role as director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD). During this period she attended conferences and delivered speeches focusing most frequently on AIDS and renal disease. Roughly thirty articles Dr. Novello wrote or co-wrote are devoted mainly to renal disease and transplantation and AIDS. There a few subject files, most notably containing letters of commendation received from 1969 to 1989.

Series 3: Surgeon General 1990-1993, is comprised of speeches, presentations, and public service announcements ranging in topic from commencement speech events, AIDS, Hispanic health, tobacco, and acceptance of honorary degrees. There are a few diverse subject files comprising topical correspondence, background information, and statistical data. There are a significant amount of unique electronic born digital speeches in this series; see the series-level scope notes for more details.

Series 4: UNICEF and Johns Hopkins 1994-1999, aggregates Novello's somewhat disparate professional activities as a UNICEF representative, former Surgeon General, and adjunct professor at John's Hopkins University. The series largely documents Novello's participation in conferences and university commencement activities where she spoke and delivered public service announcements on health issues relating to women's health, minority healthcare, and AIDS. Scant subject files from this period contain some correspondence and statistical health data. There are a significant amount of unique electronic born digital subject files and speeches in this series; see the series-level scope notes for more details.

The photograph and audiovisual series primarily contain images of Novello at various official public events such as speaches, meeting with dignitaries, award presentations, press conferences, and interviews.