Main content

Philip L. Graitcer collection on 1976 Legionnaires' disease outbreak

Notifications

Held at: Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia [Contact Us]19 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19103

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Philip Graitcer is an Adjunct Professor of Public Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and the Facilitator of the World Health Organization's Helmet Initiative. Legionnaires' disease acquired its name in 1977 when an outbreak of pneumonia occurred among people attending a convention of the American Legion in Philadelphia. On January 18, 1977 the causative agent was identified as a previously unknown bacterium, subsequently named Legionella.

The collection includes information related to the 1976 outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Philadelphia. Materials include: a manuscript journal kept by Graitcer on the reporting of and response to the outbreak; clippings and magazines; photocopies of questionnaires and charts tracking symptoms among guests and employees of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel; copies of reports; and reprints on the disease. The collection also includes several letters from members of the general public in response to the CDC's study of the outbreak.

Accession number: 2005.002

Publisher
Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Finding Aid Date
2012
Sponsor
This collection-level EAD record is a product of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL) Consortial Survey Initiative, which was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Collection Inventory

Print, Suggest