LHC Public Health Collection Resources

  The Lawrence History Center is home to many resources which document the history of public health in Lawrence since its inception in 1847. Collections Manager Amita Kiley, along with Head Researcher Kathy Flynn and Mary Pannos, have put together a listing of these materials.

  • Finding Aid: City of Lawrence Board of Health Collection, 1874 – 1984

      Inventories:

     

  • Collections 

    • Lawrence General Hospital Collection 1876-2003
    • The Joseph S. McManus Collection 1976-2009 (McManus was President of Lawrence General Hospital from June 28, 1976 until September 30, 2009)
    • Lawrence General Hospital School of Nursing Collection (includes uniforms, hats, graduation pins, yearbooks and objects)
    • Emmert Funeral Home Records
    • AJ Libby Funeral Home Records
    • An assortment of Cemetery Records/Information for Bellevue Cemetery, St. Mary and Immaculate Conception Cemetery
    • YWCA Collection
    • International Institute Collection
    • Scarito Family Collection (Nina and father Nicholas were doctors)
    • Family Services Collection
    • Arthur Teutonico Collection (he was a dentist)
    • Helen Colleta Nagy Collection (she was a nurse at Danvers State Hospital, Bessie Burke Hospital and the collection includes handwritten notes from health lectures)
    • Lawrence Public School Registers 1867-1963 (limited schools, limited years). These could be used to track the attendance of student through times of health crises. For example, children died while schools were closed for a month during the Influenza outbreak. Their deaths were noted in the school ledgers.
    • Dr. Michael Arakelian Collection (general practice doctor)
    • Development of Merrimack Valley Hospice House
    • Merger of VNA Home Care with Home Health VNA

     

  • Books

    • City Directories 1847-2013, the directories can be explored to gather and analyze listings of doctors, hospitals, druggists, apothecaries, midwives, pharmacies and other indicators of public health activity
    • City Documents 1888-1913, the documents contain annual reports from the Board of Health and other reports which may be useful (Water Department, for example)
    • Assorted books within the LHC Library
    • State Board of Health Reports, 1873-1913
    • The Lawrence Survey, 1911

     

  • Ledgers

    • Ledgers from various churches and social club and organizations including German Presbyterian Church, St. Mary’s Foresters and Deir-El-Kamar (Lebanese organization). These entities collected money from their members and used the funds as a form of insurance for when their members experienced unemployment, sickness or a death in the family.

     

  • Newspapers

    • The 1953 Lawrence Eagle Tribune Centennial Edition provides an overview of the history of Public Health on page 179
    • LHC holds a number of newspaper clippings regarding the various hospitals, doctors, nurses and concerns in Lawrence and issues relating to public health

     

  • Photographs

    • LHC holds many pictures of Lawrence hospitals, doctors, patients, nurses and hospital rooms. Our atlases will be helpful in illustrating a footprint of the hospital and its location in the city.

     

  • Subject Boxes 

    • Hiram Mills (box includes reports on his studies on Typhoid Fever in its Relation to Water Supplies, 1890, and other reports on water purification)
    • Water Sanitation/Experiment Station
    • Health (includes more current information – 1990s and later – about current health issues Lawrencians face and how we are trying to solve them, including information on the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, Mayor’s Health Task Force, and Dentists office throughout the city).
    • Social Services/Organizations (includes Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, Groundwork Lawrence, Elder Services, Senior Center)
    • Parks and Playgrounds and Sports (the need for physical activity and open spaces/green spaces can be studied in relation to an improvement in public health of its residents)

     

  • Oral Histories
    • Interviews include topics such as LGH School of Nursing, Lawrence Municipal Hospital, Tuberculosis Hospital, Burke Hospital, Clover Hill Hospital, Point After Club (mental illness) and more