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Florence S. Mahoney Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS C 466

Abstract

Prominent Washington socialite and lobbyist for health causes, most active and well-known during the 1960s and 1970s. Former wife of Miami News publisher Daniel J. Mahoney. Contains correspondence and subject files reflecting Mahoney's interest in medical research, politics, and birth control. Of special interest are her extensive files on the planning and establishment of the National Institute on Aging. Prominent correspondents include E. Grey Dimond,... Paul F. Glenn, Lister Hill, Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson, Margaret Sanger and F. Marott Sinex.

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Dates

  • Creation: 1935-1988

Extent

4.4 Linear Feet (11 boxes)

Creator

Physical Location

Materials stored onsite. History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine

Language of Materials

Collection materials primarily in English

Restrictions

Collection is not restricted. Contact the Reference Staff for information regarding access.

Copyright and Re-use Information

Donor's copyrights were transferred to the public domain. 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.

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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....

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Biographical Note

Florence Stephenson Mahoney is a prominent Washington socialite and a lobbyist for health causes who was most active and well-known during the 1960s and 1970s. Through a network of friends and acquaintances, and in particular with her close friend, the medical philanthropist and lobbyist Mary Lasker, Mahoney worked tirelessly to advance health legislation and to promote medical research.

Mahoney first became prominent in Miami society in the 1940s... as the wife of Miami News publisher Daniel J. Mahoney. The marriage ended in the early 1950s, and she began to spend most of her time at her Georgetown townhouse. During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, she reached the peak of her influence, forming close friendships with an astonishing array of powerful and well-known figures in health policy. Her parties and dinners drew an impressive roster of famous people from all branches of government and the private sector.

During the Nixon Administration, Mahoney began to concentrate more on the issue of aging. In 1974, she helped to push the legislation through Congress which created the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health. She then served on its first Advisory Council. Her service to the cause of aging research was acknowledged in the establishment of the annual Florence Mahoney Lecture given at the Institute.

A personal perspective on Florence Mahoney and her influence is found in Mike Gorman's interview with Dr. Stephen Strickland on Florence Mahoney. It is located in the Mike Gorman Papers, also in the National Library of Medicine's History of Medicine Division.

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Collection Summary

The Florence S. Mahoney papers consist of correspondence and subject files, and have been organized into three series. They are the correspondence series, the subject files, and the aging series. Most of the material dates from the 1950s through the 1980s, reflecting Mahoney's life after she came to Washington. There is almost no material from her years in Miami, and none on her early life.

The collection's showpiece is the correspondence series.... Mahoney corresponded frequently with a wide spectrum of physicians and politicians, both in the U.S. and abroad. There is extensive correspondence with E. Grey Dimond, Paul F. Glenn, Lister Hill, Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson, Margaret Sanger and F. Marott Sinex. Surprisingly, there is little correspondence with Mary Lasker.

Although small, Mahoney's general subject files contain some items of interest to the researcher. The files on birth control, for example, reflect Mahoney's and Lasker's interests in that topic. The guest lists found in her party files give a sense of her connections to the Washington elite.

Mahoney's subject files on aging date mostly from the 1970s and 1980s. They contain extensive files on the planning and establishment of the National Institute on Aging. They also hold material on Veterans' Administration programs and correspondence with researchers.

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