Ernest L. Stebbins Collection

Biography

Ernest L. Stebbins was born in Oelwein, Iowa. He attended Drake University and Dartmouth College, receiving his B.S. from Dartmouth in 1925. He entered Dartmouth Medical College but transferred to Rush Medical College at the University of Chicago, where he received his M.D. in 1929. After serving as a hospital intern and resident surgeon in Chicago, Stebbins came to Baltimore and earned his M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1932. First appointed as an epidemiologist and health officer in Virginia and New York, he later worked as both New York City health commissioner and a professor at Columbia University before joining the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1946. Stebbins was director of the school of hygiene and public health from 1946 until 1958 and dean from 1958 to 1967. He was named dean emeritus in 1967 and professor emeritus in 1972. Stebbins was also an advisor to the World Health Organization and a consultant to the Agency for International Development, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Public Health Service.

Scope and Content

The Ernest L. Stebbins Collection spans much of his career, emphasizing his roles as director of the school of hygiene and public health and an advisor to the World Health Organization. The collection contains manuscripts, reports, reprints, and photographs. A binder contains typed (and carbon copied) manuscripts of the talks given by Stebbins from 1936 to 1967. There is also a report titled The Needs of the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Hygiene (1962), and a draft of a report by Abel Wolman titled The School of Hygiene After Forty Years (1958). Several high-level reports which Stebbins authored or co-authored or in which he was a key participant are also contained in the collection. These include: A report of the Commission for the Study of the Reorganization of the Health Care Services [of Italy] (1958); Traveling Seminar on Organization and Administration of Schools of Public Health, sponsored by WHO in 1964; Pennsylvania’s Health: A Report of a Study of Health Needs and Resources of Pennsylvania (1961); The Brazil-United States Cooperative Health and Sanitation Program: 1942-1960. There are also reports from the CENTO Conference Series on the Teaching Public Health and Public Health Practice, conducted in Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan in 1970, and a Report of An Inspection Tour of the [Air Force Operations in the] Far East (1955). The photograph collection contains portraits of Stebbins and his colleagues. In addition, there are many photographs documenting his participation in meetings and conferences around the world. There is also a biographical file that contains clippings, curricula vitae, press releases, and other materials. Official correspondence and other records of Stebbins while he was dean may be found in the institutional records of the office of the dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Catalog Record

Additional Links

Records of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Dean’s Office, Ernest Stebbins Correspondence, 1947-1967

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