RAMSEY COUNTY: ST. PAUL-RAMSEY COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT:

An Inventory of Its Records at the Minnesota Historical Society

Government Records

OVERVIEW


	Creator:	Ramsey County (Minn.). St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health Department.
	Title:	Records.
	Dates:	1916-2012.
	Language:	Materials in English.
	Abstract:	Records documenting the administration and activities of the St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health Department. Includes scrapbooks, subject files of Medical Director Dr. Neal R. Holtan, and photographs. Also included are published records and reports of the department's predecessors the St. Paul Community Services Department, Public Health Division, and the St. Paul Public Safety Department, Health Bureau. The latter contains a polio quarantine notice with hand-written description of patient James Miller's experience written by his mother, a contagious disease quarantine notice, and vaccination cards.
	Quantity:	9.75 cubic feet (11 boxes).
	Location:	See Detailed Description for shelf locations.

The St. Paul Public Health Department (previously known as the St. Paul Community Services Department/Public Health Division, and St. Paul Public Safety Department/Health Bureau), and the Ramsey County Public Health Department merged in 1997 through a joint powers agreement.

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Ramsey County (Minn.). St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health Department. Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession numbers: 2021-7; 2022-18

Processing Information:

Processed by: Charles Rodgers and Perry Schussler, September 2020

Catalog ID number: 9989795239704294

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION


Location
115.H.4.5B	Scrapbooks, 1916-1936, 1941-1969:
		Primarily newspaper clippings concerning a wide variety of public health topics, including the Spanish Influenza epidemic, polio, milk and dairies, food, quarantines, laws, nuisances and pests, infection diseases, vaccines, animal control, vice and sanitation. The scrapbooks for the period 1916-1936 are arranged in rough chronological order. The scrapbooks for the period 1942-1969 are arranged in rough chronological order, there under by topic.
		Milk and dairies, 1916-1922:
			June 1916-November 1918.
			November 1918-February 1919.
			February-May 1919.
			May-August 1919.
			August-September 1919.
			September 1919-January 1920.
Location
115.H.4.6F			January-September 1920.
			September 1920-August 1921.
			August 1921-October 1922.
			March 1923-July 1924.
			August 1924-February 1925.
			February 1925-September 1926.
			October 1926-December 1934.
			August 1934-August 1936.
Location
139.A.3.1B-2		1941-1957.
			Topics include rats, food and dairy, sanitation, pest control, dogs, pollution, and contagious diseases.
		1941-1967.
			Topics include the public health center.
		1942-1957.
			Topics include county health, general health, city health statistics, drugs and diseases, housing, and civil defense.
Location
139.A.3.2F-1		1950-1967.
			Topics include dogs, pest control, pollution, and budget.
		1955-1961.
			Topics include polio.
		1955-1964.
			Topics include "reprints" of public health articles.
Location
139.A.3.2F-2		1956-1967.
			Topics include drugs and diseases, hospitals, county health, and general health.
		1957-1966.
			Topics include social and contagious diseases, food poisoning, housing, food and dairy, and statistics.
		1958-1967.
			Topics include home accident prevention, nursing and boarding care home inspection, family planning, polio, and other topics.
Location
139.A.3.3B-1		1960-1962.
			Topics include health center; and news clippings and correspondence regarding polio.
		1963-1969.
			Topics include housing.
		1964-1966.
			Topics include immunization program, stroke program, and cancer.
Location
139.A.3.3B-2		1964-1967.
			Topics include dogs, social diseases, polio, housing, and contagion.
		1964-1967.
			Topics include Medicare.
		1965-1968.
			Topics include dogs, pests, food and dairy.


Location
115.H.4.7B	Subject files of Dr. Neal R. Holtan (medical director), 1938-2009 (bulk dated 1957s-1990s):
		AIDS, 1985-1988. 4 folders.
			Include meeting minutes, reports, policies and procedures.
		Blood/body fluid exposure, 1999.
		Elevated lead levels: St. Paul census maps, 1974-1981.
		Gopher Smelting, 1981.
		Health Bureau, 1949, 1964.
		Health center, 1956-1958.
		Hepatitis outbreak, 2000.
		History of St. Paul school nursing, 1965, 1974.
		History seminar, 2004.
		Immunization instructions, 1961-1964.
		Incident command, 2005.
		Lead planning and procedural activities, 1980-1987.
		Lead poison testing, 1980s.
		Long range plan, 1983.
		Measles and Hmong families epidemic, 1990-1994.
		Merger of the St. Paul Public Health Department and the Ramsey County Public Health Department, 1983-1996. 13 folders:
			Include meeting minutes, correspondence and reports.
			1983-1994. 7 folders.
Location
115.H.4.8F			1995-1996. 6 folders.
		150th anniversary of public health, 2004.
		Polio vaccine, 1960-1961.
		Project LID (Lower Infant Deaths), 1992-1993.
		Publications by Dr. Neal R. Holtan, 1979-2009. 2 folders.
		Public health newsletter, 1995.
		Public health nurses, 1961, 1968.
		Public health week, 1995-1998. 4 folders.
		Refugees serologic survey, 2000-2004. 2 folders.
		St. Paul Public Health Department news clippings, 1971-1974.
		St. Paul school immunization, 1964-1969.
		St. Paul Urban Indian Health Clinic, 1981.
		Southeast Asian program clinic, 1979-1982. 4 folders.
		Strep throat and rheumatic fever program, 1973-1980.
Location
115.H.4.9B		Swine flu immunization, 1976.
		Tuberculosis nursing, 1960s.
		Tuberculosis testing, 1958-1978. 3 folders.
			Includes information specific to schools and Asian refugees.
		Tuberculosis testing in schools, 1987-1999.
		Wells in hospitals, 1938-1948.


		Photographs, approximately 1940s-2000. 4 folders.
			Primarily black and white prints, but some color prints, of various sizes. Include photographs of homes (interiors and exteriors) depicting garbage, decay, and unsanitary living conditions; arranged in alphabetical order by street address. Also, photographs of public health staff (doctors, nurses, lab technicians, administrative staff, sanitarians, and food, housing and health inspectors), and various work activities including residences and businesses being inspected, rat infestation, and immunization clinics. Some, but not all, of the photographs are identified.


	Published records and reports, 1938-2012:
		St. Paul: Community Services Department: Public Health Division:
			Arranged in alphabetical order by title.
			Annual statistical summary of occupational accidents, 1986.
			City and county public health services: A study of options for the mosteffective administrative structure, May 1987.
			Community health services plans:
				1976. 2 folders.
				1978.
				1979.
				St. Paul and Suburban Ramsey County, 1984-1985.
				St. Paul and Suburban Ramsey County, 1986-1987.
				1990-1991.
					Plan update summaries.
				1992-1995.
				1994-1995.
					Plan update.
				1996-1999.
					Community assessment.
Location
115.H.4.10F			Environmental health annual report, 1979-1980, 1982-1983. 4 volumes.
			Health data for St. Paul neighborhoods, 1983.
			Housing code enforcement section annual report, 1984.
			Infectious diseases in child care settings; information for directors, caregivers, and parents or guardians, January 1987.
			Immunization survey: St. Paul-Ramsey County, May 1964.
			Maternal and child health annual reports, 1979-1981. 3 volumes.
			Pilot program to provide comprehensive evaluation of HIV-Seropositive persons at alternative test sites with an assessment of factors related to medical follow-up, 1988.
			Policy and procedure manual, 1993.
			Preventive health services annual reports, 1982-1983. 2 volumes.
			Project LID (Lower Infant Deaths), 1995. 2 folders.
			Provider’s guide to Southeast Asian refugee health care, approximately 1980s.
			Safety and health plan, 1995.
			Soil lead levels, 1985.
			Summary report: 1983-1987.
		St. Paul: Public Safety Department: Health Bureau:
			Arranged in alphabetical order by title.
			Final reports for field training, 1968. 3 volumes.
				Submitted by Gary David Gilmore, Regina McPhillips and Karen Louise Senn.
			Greater St. Paul area community program for heart disease, cancer and stroke, 1968.
			St. Paul Minnesota poliomyelitis survey, 1959.
			Polio records of James Miller:
				James Miller, a lifelong Saint Paul resident, became sick with polio in 1953 when he was 5 years old. As a result, the city of Saint Paul’s Bureau of Health placed quarantine notices on his family’s home. Miller’s mother kept the notices and wrote a narrative of the experience on the reverse of one of them (transcribed below). Miller was treated at Ancker Hospital in Saint Paul (now Regions Hospital) in the children’s polio ward. Shortly after he recovered he was proclaimed the King of Polio at the March of Dimes (photo transferred to Sound and Visual collection).
				Polio quarantine notice, 1953.
					Reverse of notice contains handwritten narrative of Miller’s experience written by his mother: “Jimmy had Bulbar far polio – Aug. He got sick the second of Aug and went to the Bethesda hospital the 5th and stayed for the night. Dr. Peterson and Dr. Hederstrom said it was polio the 6th of Aug – he had to go to the Anker hospital, Ron left for the Marines the 7th and we spent three days – night and day at the hospital. They did not expect Jimmy to live he was in the oxygen tent for 6 days – they fed him for 2 weeks thru his foot he came home the 24 of Aug – the 4 of Sept he was in perfect health all but his palette it was paralyzed on one side - 1953.
					Went to school all day – was king of the polio March of Dimes. I marched in the Mother’s March of Dimes I got $17.17.
					Digital version
				Contagious disease quarantine notice, 1953.
					Digital version
				Vaccination cards:
					Diptheria-Tetanus vaccination card, 1952.
						Digital version
					Sabin oral polio vaccine program cards (2), 1962.
						Digital version
		St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health Department:
			Arranged in alphabetical order by title.
			2000-2003. Community health services plan: Community assessment, program plan, program plan document, program plan summary. 4 volumes.
			Final technical report: Ramsey County health care insurance and access survey, 1996.
			Health care for the uninsured: Findings and recommendations, 1998.
			Lowering infant deaths: Promoting change to save lives, 1998.
			Programs and service, 2012.

CATALOG HEADINGS

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:: Community health services -- Minnesota -- Ramsey County.; Public health -- Minnesota -- Ramsey County.; Public welfare -- Minnesota -- Ramsey County.

Persons:: Holtan, Neal.

Organizations:: City and County Hospital (Saint Paul, Minn.); Ramsey County (Minn.). Department of Health.; Saint Paul (Minn.). Department of Health.; Saint Paul (Minn.). Division of Public Health.; Saint Paul (Minn.). Department of Community Services.; Saint Paul (Minn.). Bureau of Health.

Document Types:: Photographs

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RAMSEY COUNTY: ST. PAUL-RAMSEY COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT:

OVERVIEW

HISTORICAL NOTE

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

CATALOG HEADINGS