Research Guide to Public Health and Medical History in Puerto Rico

Libraries

• The library/archive of the Escuela de Medicina of the UPR medical school.  They hold the archives of early 20th-century medical research, including the Ashford papers.  They also have a massive digital library of published items, and a specialized library.
  • We published some of their guides on our page and have the link to the digital library somewhere in our research guides.
• The Coleccion Puertorriquena at the UPR library. The director: JAVIER R ALMEYDA LOUCIL javier.almeyda1@upr.edu
  • Their digital library in ISSUU

• The PRAC’s digital library has many of the health department bulletins.
• The PRAC’s newspaper research guide on our website.
• The UPR has digitized all of its journals, and they are available online.
  • They have some medical/social work journals posted.
  • Also, held at Coleccion Puertorriquena UPR Library, or Escuela de Medicina library.
• The Internet Archive has most of the Boletin de la Asociacion Medica de Puerto Rico (and other publications).

Archives:

• Archivo General de Puerto Rico
  • The PRAC is helping the AGPR organize welfare “servicios sociales” records.
  • Licensing agency documents.
  • Municipal collections at AGPR: Sección Sanidad y Beneficencia.
  • The PRAC is helping the AGPR organize the CRUV and Parques y Recreo, and these sections have some material related to public health from the mid-20th 20th.  
  • The massive PRERA materials are both at AGPR (with partial guides) and at NARA in Maryland.
• There are stray records that we are trying to identify, like licensing boards and professional association records.
• Índice Revista Bienestar Público, 1950-1970
• Puerto Rico Public Health Reports, 1918-1947

Scholars:

• José Rigau
• Pedro Roig, archivist who has knowledge of all AGPR documents. proig@icp.pr.gov
• Cathy Cabrera-Figueroa ccabrerafi@gradcenter.cuny.edu
• Mariola Espinosa,mariola-espinosa@uiowa.edu
• Raúl Mayo-Santana

Bibliography:

• Lucy Peña Carro, “Las Comisiones de Anemia en Puerto Rico (1904-1908): medicina o justicia social”. Tesis de maestría, Universidad de Puerto Rico, 2007.
• Harold E. Leonard Reyes, “El impacto de la campaña contra la uncinariasis y la política de salud pública norteamericana en Puerto Rico, 1898-1918”, Tesis de maestría, UPR, 1991.
• Bailey K. Ashford, A Soldier in Science: The Autobiography of Bailey K. Ashford (San Juan, PR: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1998).
• Rodrigo Fernós, Gonzalo Fernós Maldonado y el Espacio para la Ciencia en Puerto Rico (Indianápolis: XLIBRIS, 2013).