National Library of Medicine Acquires the Papers of Louis W. Sullivan, MD

March 10, 2020

The Nationwide Library of Medicine (NLM) is honored to announce its acquisition of the papers of Louis W. Sullivan, MD, former United States Secretary of Well being and Human Expert services (HHS). This is the initially assortment of papers from a former HHS Secretary, acquired by the NLM and will be portion of the archival collections of the world’s major clinical library and institute of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH).

Louis W. Sullivan is an African American health practitioner who served as secretary of HHS from 1989-1993 and as dean and president of Morehouse Faculty of Medicine (MSM) from 1975-1989 and from 1993-2002. The Nationwide Institute on Minority Well being and Well being Disparities at NIH was initially proven as an Workplace less than the NIH Director via Secretary Sullivan in 1990 and was elevated to an Institute in 2010.

The Louis W. Sullivan Papers consist of Dr. Sullivan’s HHS chronological correspondence, motion/briefing documents, daily calendars, speeches, news clippings, White Property memorabilia, celebration pictures, and honorary levels and awards. The assortment paperwork Secretary Sullivan’s initiatives to teach the public on the potential risks of tobacco use, which includes stopping the introduction of Uptown, a cigarette built for internet marketing to minority communities introduce new and enhanced foodstuff labels initiate a $one hundred million minority male health and fitness and injuries avoidance initiative and enhance the Nationwide Institutes of Well being budget about $five billion.

About his time as Secretary, Dr. Sullivan said: “I am grateful for the possibility to have served as U.S. Secretary of Well being and Human Expert services, throughout a major time to oversee the growth of its applications and lead to the racial, ethnic, and gender variety of its leadership. This increased the department’s outreach to all Americans.”

Dr. Sullivan gained his undergraduate diploma from Morehouse University in 1954 and his clinical diploma in 1958 from Boston College Faculty of Medicine.

Just after holding positions at Harvard Medical Faculty, Seton Hall University of Medicine, Boston College Medical Centre, and Boston City Medical center, Dr. Sullivan returned to Morehouse University in 1975 to serve as dean and director of the Medical Education and learning Application. Less than his leadership, the Medical Education and learning Application became independent from Morehouse University in 1981 and was renamed Morehouse Faculty of Medicine (MSM). Dr. Sullivan served as president and dean of MSM prior to and subsequent his tenure as secretary of HHS. He was also chair of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Faculties and Universities from 2002-2009 and was co-chair of the President’s Commission on HIV and AIDS from 2001-2006. 

Dr. Sullivan is chairman of the Sullivan Alliance to Renovate the Well being Professions and is the founding president of the Association of Minority Well being Professions Educational institutions (AMHPS). He is the author of The Morehouse Mystique: Getting to be a Health practitioner at the Nation’s Newest African American Medical Faculty (with Marybeth Gasman, 2012, Johns Hopkins College Press) and his autobiography Breaking Floor: My Lifestyle in Medicine (with David Chanoff, 2014, College of Ga Press).

The NLM History of Medicine Division homes the papers of outstanding public health and fitness leaders, which includes other officers of the U.S. Office of Well being and Human Expert services (and its predecessor the U.S. Office of Well being, Education and learning and Welfare), which includes Faye Abdellah, Edward Brandt, Emery Johnson, and June Osborn the papers of NIH Directors Harold Varmus, Bernadine Healy, Donald Fredrickson, James A. Shannon, Robert Marston and the papers of Surgeons Normal Regina Benjamin, Jocelyn Elders, C. Everett Koop, Antonia Novello, Julius Richmond, and Luther Terry.

Details about Dr. Sullivan’s papers and the hundreds of other manuscript collections held by the NLM History of Medicine Division is out there via NLM’s online getting aids, thorough analysis guides to manuscript collections.