Richard P. Strong papers

The collection consists of records reflecting the scientific work and career of Richard Pearson Strong. Strong was an expert in tropical medicine and worked in the United States, the Philippines, South America, and Africa on a variety of tropical diseases, including cholera, beri-beri, yaws, and plague.

The collection contains correspondence files and related material concerning the Harvard Medical School Department of Tropical Medicine from its earliest years until Strong's retirement in 1938, as well as records related to Strong's teaching activities at Harvard and at the Army Medical School; scientific expeditions; World War I work as head of the Red Cross commission to combat the typhus epidemic in Serbia; involvement in social clubs, international congresses, and professional societies such as the American Academy and Foundation of Tropical Medicine; advisory work for the National Research Council Committee on Medical Problems of Animal Parasitology; and service on the Massachusetts Public Health Council. The collection includes records pertaining to Strong's research and writing; some family correspondence and personal financial papers; general correspondence, memoranda, and photographs relating to Strong's teaching for the Army during World War II; a book and series of DVDs about the Harvard African Expedition in 1934; and a diary and letters belonging to Strong's wife, Grace Nichols.

The collection includes Harvard teaching and departmental material consisting of correspondence with other offices, information about faculty appointments, lecture notes, course schedules, examinations, budgets, and reports and publications concerning establishment of the Department of Tropical Medicine in 1913. The collection also contains correspondence, memoranda, and photographs relating to Strong's teaching in the Army during World War II, and a book and series of DVDs about the Harvard African Expedition in 1934.

The 1934 African Expedition material includes considerable correspondence with Strong's Harvard associates, such as George Cheever Shattuck, J. C. Bequaert, T. R. Barbour, A. W. Sellards, and J. H. Sandground; with A. Hamilton Rice and other scientists; U.S. and foreign public officials; former President Coolidge; missionaries; and organizations, such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Also included are related financial documents, medical photographs and a 1911 map, extracts from Strong's diary, supply and equipment lists, notes and manuscripts of lectures and reports, and other items about expeditions to Peru (1913 and 1937), Brazil (1924), Liberia and the Belgian Congo (1926-1927 and 1934), Guatemala (1931-1932), and the Yucatan (1931) to study and control diseases such as onchocerciasis.

Papers about Red Cross work in Serbia include correspondence, notes and clippings, as well as correspondence and reports from the Conference at Cannes (organized by Strong in 1919). Also included are World War I reports, supply lists, and memoranda reflecting his research on trench fever. Other material reflects Strong's research on tropical diseases in conjunction with Boston area hospitals; consulting work for United Fruit Company; and lectures at Lowell Institute, Boston.

The collection also contains photographs from his work in Manchuria during the 1911 plague and from Manila and Harvard; and an early notebook of experiments, ca. 1899.

Papers are entirely in English.