Because the papers include Confidential Health Information (CHI) as defined by Columbia University policies governing data security and privacy, access is allowed only under the terms of Archives and Special Collections’ Access Policy to Records Containing Confidential Health Information.
The film and audiotape are closed until their transfer to a more stable medium.
Correspondence, reports, departmental publications, clinical records, film, audiotape, and phonograph records documenting Shookhoff's career as Chief of the Division of Tropical Medicine, New York City Dept. of Health. Records relate to the daily functions of the Division, and to its role in combating tropical diseases in New York, especially amebiasis, malaria, and schistosomiasis.
History and Biography
Howard B. Shookhoff, epidemiologist and specialist in tropical medicine, was born April 6, 1910 in Brooklyn, N.Y. He received his A.B. (1930) and M.D. (1933) from Columbia University where he ranked first in his medical school class. After an internship and residency at Presbyterian and Montefiore Hospitals in New York, Shookhoff studied in 1937-38 at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, from which he received the diploma in tropical medicine.
During World War II Shookhoff was chief of a field party in Colombia for the Health and Sanitation Division of the U.S. Office of Inter-American Affairs. Upon returning to the U.S. in 1944, he joined the New York City Department of Health as Epidemiologist in Tropical Medicine. Shookhoff remained with the department for the rest of his life, serving as Physician-in-Charge of the Tropical Disease Diagnostic Service (1946-1954) and Chief, Division of Tropical Medicine from 1954 until his death.
He was also Adjunct Prof. of Tropical Medicine at Columbia University’s School of Public Health and a Visiting Prof. of Preventive & Environmental Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Howard B. Shookhoff died December 27, 1977 in the Bronx, N.Y.
Organization
Correspondence, reports, clinical records, film, audiotape, and phonograph records documenting Shookhoff’s career in the New York City Department of Health. These records appear to have been his office files as Chief of the department’s Division of Tropical Medicine. There are no personal papers and nothing relating to his education or wartime service in Colombia.
The papers contain much relating to the functioning of the Division including procedure manuals, job descriptions, budgets, and correspondence with other departmental divisions such as the Bureau of Preventable Diseases and the Bureau of Laboratories.
A large percentage of the records relate to cases of amebiasis, leprosy, malaria, schistosomiasis, and tapeworm which the Division investigated. Included are correspondence, case records, statistical data, and background information, such as medical journal articles and publications of the U.S. Public Health Service. There are also records documenting the Division’s role in investigating outbreaks of tropical diseases at New York State’s Creedmore and Brooklyn psychiatric hospitals.
In addition, there are nine reels of film, all apparently having to do with tropical diseases, and an audiotape recording a 1955 panel discussion on amebiasis.
| Box | Folder | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Amebiasis: Diodoquin, 1947-1954 |
| 2 | Amebiasis: Lecture notes? c.1960-c.1976 | |
| 3 | Amebiasis Complement-Fixations tests, 1951-1952, 1956-1957 | |
| 4 | Brooklyn State Hospital, 1974-1977 | |
| 5 | Budget, 1968-1977 | |
| 6 | Clerical manual: Duties of a clerk, 1944-1960 | |
| 7 | Clerical manual: Statistics, 1959 | |
| 8 | Columbia University, 1975-1976 | |
| 9 | Commissioner of Health, 1974-1977 | |
| 10 | Correspondence: 1958, 1962, 1969-1975 | |
| 11 | Correspondence: 1976-1977 | |
| 12 | Creedmoor Hospital, 1943, 1955-1964, 1971-1974 | |
| 2 | 1 | Division [of Tropical Medicine] productivity, 1957-1960, 1976 |
| 2 | Division [of Tropical Medicine] work unit description report, 1957 | |
| 3 | Drugs used in tropical clinics, 1974-1977 | |
| 4 | East Harlem proposal, 1967-1969 | |
| 5 | Educational: General, c.1970s | |
| 6 | Educational: Malaria, c.1950s | |
| 7 | Educational: Pinworms, c.1959-1960 | |
| 8 | Educational: Schistosomiasis, c.1957 | |
| 9 | Educational: Films, 1952 | |
| 10 | Expansion proposals, 1967-1974 | |
| 11 | Forms, c.1970s | |
| 12 | Giardia: Data, c.1940s-c.1960s | |
| 13 | Homosexuals: Article and data on sexually-transmitted enteric diseases, 1977 | |
| 14 | Job descriptions: Professional positions, 1946, 1957 & undated | |
| 15 | Laboratories, Bureau of, NYC Dept. of Health: 1945-1964, 1970-1972 | |
| 16 | Laboratories, Bureau of, NYC Dept. of Health: 1973-1977 | |
| 17 | Leprosy: General, 1956, 1960, 1969-1970, 1974 | |
| 18 | Leprosy: Status of cases under supervision, 1961, 1966-1967 | |
| 19 | Leprosy: U.S. Public Health Service, Staten Island, 1967-1971 | |
| 3 | 1 | Malaria: Background material, c.1960s |
| 2 | Malaria: Cases in New York City: data, correspondence, articles, c.1945- 1973 | |
| 3 | Malaria: Cases in New York City, 1970-1976 | |
| 4 | Malaria: Cases in New York City, 1977 | |
| 5 | Malaria: Reports to U.S. Public Health Service, 1963-1974 | |
| 6 | Malaria: Transfusion cases: background material, 1970-1973 | |
| 7 | Malaria: Transfusion cases: Mount Sinai Hospital, 1969-1970 | |
| 8 | Malaria: Transfusion cases: NYC, 1945-1949, 1968, 1972-1973 | |
| 9 | Malaria: Transfusion cases: “own cases,” 1946-1947, 1964-1971 | |
| 10 | Management, 1973-1977 | |
| 11 | Medical Society of the State of New York: Committee on Preventive Medicine, 1970-1977 | |
| 12 | Miscellaneous notes, drafts of articles [lectures?], & letters, undated | |
| 4 | 1 | Miscellaneous notes, drafts of articles [lectures?], & letters, undated |
| 2 | Newspaper clippings: largely on tropical disease, c.1945-1958 | |
| 3-4 | Parasitology Proficiency Testing, 1976-1977 | |
| 5 | Philadelphia Tropical Disease Program, 1956-1961 | |
| 6 | Physicians’ Manual, Tropical Disease Division: 1956-1959 | |
| 7 | Physicians’ Manual, Tropical Disease Division: 1958-1959, 1974-1977 | |
| 8 | Pigeons, Task Force on: Correspondence, reports, 1961-1963 | |
| 9 | Pinworms: Procedures for detection, c.1950-1955 | |
| 10 | Policy & Programs Proposals, 1955-1958, 1963-1976 | |
| 11 | Preventable Diseases, Bureau of, New York City Dept. of Health: Correspondence, 1961, 1967-1976 | |
| 5 | 1 | Procedure Manual, Division of Tropical Diseases, NYC Dept. of Health, 1960 |
| 2 | Program Evaluations/Goals, 1956-1961 | |
| 3 | Schistosomiasis: Cases in Washington Heights treated with Fuadin, 1956-1963 | |
| 4 | Schistosomiasis: Proposals, 1955-1970 | |
| 5 | Schistosomiasis Study: Cases treated at Morrisania – Charts, 1960-1970 | |
| 6 | Schistosomiasis Mansoni Cases: Washington Heights Tropical Clinic, 1944-1960 | |
| 7 | Schistosomiasis Mansoni Cases: Treated [with Fuadin?], 1956-1963 | |
| 8 | Smallpox, 1972 | |
| 9 | Tapeworm Cases, 1956-1972 | |
| 10 | Technician Training, 1958-1960 | |
| 11 | The Medical Letter: Correspondence with editor, 1970-1977 | |
| 12 | Tropical Eosinophilia: Data, reports, cases, 1948-1976 | |
| 13 | U.S. Pharmacopeia, Committee on Revision, 1971-1977 | |
| 14 | U.S. Public Health Service: Correspondence, 1964-1977 | |
| 15 | U.S. Public Health Service: Parasitic Drug Service, 1967-1973 | |
| 16 | U.S. Public Health Service: Reports from Parasitic Diseases Branch, 1976-1977 | |
| 17 | Venereal Diseases & Tropical Medicine: notes, background material, c.1977 | |
| 18 | Yomesan, 1964-1967 | |
| 6 | Loose in box: | 9 reels of film: 1 reel labeled “Amebiasis;” 1 reel labeled “Squirty World;” 2 reels labeled “Montefiore Hospital & Medical Center, Parasitology Lab – Potpourri;” 4 reels unlabeled |
| 1 reel audiotape: “NYC Postgraduate Radio Program, NY Academy of Medicine, 26th Sess., 1955/56, December 15th 1955, Track No.1, The therapy of Amebiasis and other parasitic infections (Panel). Hary Most – moderator, Herman M. Biggs, B. H. Kean, Howard B. Shookhoff.” | ||
| “Schisto Packet:” boxed information on schistosomiasis provided by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation | ||
| Housed in 12” Phonodisc Box 1: | ||
| 1:5-6 “Parasitic Infections,” New York Academy of Medicine, Feb. 7, 1956, Parts 1-4 | ||
| 1:7 “Pro and Con,” Station WHN, Aug. 5, 1962 | ||
| Housed in 10” Phonodisc Box 1: | ||
| 1:1 “You and Your Health,” place/station unknown, July 29, 1963 | ||
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Gift of Muriel Shookhoff, 1986.
Papers processed and finding aid written by Stephen E. Novak, Jan. 2009