Minutes of the Committee on Medical Research of the Office of Scientific Research and Development of the United States

Collection

Identifier: MSS 1/003-01

Scope and Contents

The volume (disbound) contains copies of the minutes with related correspondence of the Committee on Medical Research of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, 1944 Sept. 21-1946 Sept. 27-28, documenting the committee's work through the end of World War II and its demobilization. Included is a list of the committee's resolutions, 19411945. The minutes bear occasional holograph notes written by its chairman, Alfred N. Richards.

Responsibilities and concerns of the committee which are treated in the minutes include: recommendations to fund, terminate, or transfer government research contracts; approval or classification of publications derived from contract projects; and the transition from wartime to peacetime research, including plans for an organization to succeed the Committee on Medical Research. Principal subjects in the minutes are: aviation medicine; the development and uses of penicillin and antimalarial drugs;jconsiderations of volunteer human subjects in antimalarial drug experiments; and the exchange of biomedical information with English and Soviet researchers.

Dates

1944 - 1946

Creator

United States. Office of Scientific Research and Development. ‎Committee on Medical Research‏ (Organization)

Biographical / Historical

The Committee on Medical Research of the U.S. Government's Office of Scientific Research and Development was established on 28 June 1941. It was charged with organizing civilian personnel for research on medical problems of military importance during World War II, particularly problems concerning aviation medicine, antimalarial drugs, and penicillin. Specifically, the committee allotted and supervised government research contracts with universities, hospitals, and other organizations. The chairman of the Committee on Medical Research was Alfred N. Richards, and the committee itself was composed of four presidential appointees and one appointee each from the Secretaries of War and the Navy and the Administrator of the Federal Security Agency.

The committee was first convened on 31 July 1941 and met generally on a weekly basis until the end of the war. It then met infrequently until its final adjournment on 20 January 1947. At the end of the war, many of the committee's contracts were transferred to the Public Health Service, appropriate divisions of the armed forces, or private research groups.

Extent

1 volume

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Custodial History

The minutes of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development's Committee on Medical Research were donated to the Historical Collections of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia by the Medical Library of the University of Pennsylvania on 24 October 1973.

The volume was disbound and catalogued in 1991.

Subjects

Related Names

Creator

United States. Office of Scientific Research and Development. ‎Committee on Medical Research‏ (Organization)

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title: Minutes of the Committee on Medical Research of the Office of Scientific Research and Development of the United States
Language of description: Undetermined
Script of description: Code for undetermined script