ABCC Collections

Taxonomy

Code

Scope note(s)

  • Since 1986, The McGovern Historical Center has solicited and preserved the documents of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. This Collection is comprised of manuscripts and other records donated by former members throughout the United States. There are nearly 200 cubic feet of records. The individual collections offer insight; while the entire collection offers a comprehensive view of the attitudes, goals, and activities of the Commission from the late 1940’s through its evolution into the Radiation Effects Research Foundation. An interesting component of the ABCC Collection are the photographs. These augment the written records and provide their own historical evidence of the research activities, international interest in the ABCC, and the interactions of the personnel.

Source note(s)

  • Local, TMCLMHC
  • TMCLMHC

Display note(s)

Hierarchical terms

ABCC Collections

Equivalent terms

ABCC Collections

Associated terms

6 Authority record results for ABCC Collections

6 results directly related Exclude narrower terms

Anderson, Raymond C.

  • Person
  • 1918-2008

Dr. Ray C. Anderson, MD, Ph.D, was born in Duluth, Minnesota in about 1918. He attended Gustavus Adolphus College where his undergraduate mentor Dr. J. Alfred Elson "helped him obtain a teaching assistant position at the University of Minnesota in the lab of Dr. C.P. Oliver, a leading geneticist. Anderson went on to complete his Ph.D. in Zoology (Genetics). Oliver encouraged him to apply to medical school to study the burgeoning field of medical genetics" (University of Minnesota, College of Biological Sciences: Biography, Spring 2008.)In 1946 Anderson recieved his medical degree from the University of Mainnesota, ranked first in his class.

After receiving his medical degree, Anderson accepted an internship at the University of Michigan Genetics Institute, where he met Dr. James Neel. In 1947 Dr. Anderson was obligated to enlist in the U.S. Army as a Medical Officer. In this capacity Dr. Anderson was asked by Dr. Neel if he would like to participate in a genetic study of survivors of the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima, Japan. Dr. Anderson was very interested in this research, and in November 1947 Anderson traveled to Japan to join the research team at the newly-formed Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.

Anderson remained with the ABCC for two years. During this time he worked closely, though not always harmoniously, with Dr. Neel. Anderson contributed to a number of studies of the health of the survivors and children of the survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In 1949 Ray Anderson returned to the United States, where he gravitated towards the field of pediatric cardiology. He enjoyed a long and successful career in cardiology, and was a member of the surgical team at the University of Minnesota that preformed the very first open heart surgery. He published over 135 articles over the course of his career.

Dr. Ray Anderson enjoyed a long and distinguished medical career that spanned a number of years. The collection at the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center focuses on the brief period of Dr. Anderson's career from 1947 to 1949, when he worked with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.

Dr. Ray Anderson died May 20, 2008 in Sun City, Arizona, where he lived part of the year after his retirement from medicine in 1980.

Hamilton, Howard B.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2005037463
  • Person
  • 1918-2007

Dr. Howard Beye Hamilton was born in Oak Park Illinois on December 4, 1918. He graduated from the University of Rochester in New York in 1941 and from Yale University School of Medicine in 1945. Hamilton served in the United States Navy from 1942-1945, during World War II. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Hamilton conducted research at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, the Long Island School of Medicine, the New York College of Surgeons, and the University of Tokyo in Japan.

In 1956 Dr. Hamilton moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he lived for the next thirty years. After his move to Japan, Hamilton served as the Chief of Clinical Laboratories for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) from 1956 until its dissolution in 1975. Hamilton worked in the same capacity for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), which succeeded the ABCC, until 1984. Between 1984 and 1986 Dr. Hamilton began transitioning into retirement; he continued to work as a consultant for the RERF during this time.

Dr. Hamilton was a consummate scholar and published extensively thoughout his career. Hamilton published papers on topics including endocrinology, steroid chemistry, enzyme kinetics, hemoglobinopathies, the structure and function of hemoglobin, genetic polymorphisms, biochemical genetics, the long term after-effects of exposure to ionizing radiation, and epidemiology of cardio-vascular disease.

Dr. Hamilton's hobbies included playing tennis and practicing the Japanese theatrical art of Noh, which features dramatic masks and carefully defined movements. After his retirement, Dr. Hamilton catalogued Noh and Kabuki works and published Noh plays. In some circles, Dr. Hamilton was known as much for his enthusiastic patronage and participation in Noh as he was for his work with the ABCC and RERF. (Source: Washington Post, May 9, 2007)

Dr. Hamilton died on May 9, 2007 at his home in Falls Church, Virginia. He was 88 years old.

Miller, Robert W.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82090380
  • Person
  • 1921-2006

Dr. Robert Warwick Miller was born on September 29, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York(1). Miller was the eldest of two sons. Inspired by his parents’ passion for medicine as well as his uncle’s successful hospital, Miller had always wanted to become a physician(2). He attended the University of Pennsylvania for both his bachelor's and medical degrees(3). Miller greatly enjoyed medical school, particularly because they “encouraged innovation” in their students(4). He trained in pediatrics during his residency at the Buffalo Children’s Hospital. After completing his residency, Miller did not feel completely comfortable going immediately into a medical practice and decided that he needed to further his education(5). He graduated during a time in the medical community when specializing in a certain type of medicine was the general standard, but Miller was not interested in focusing on a narrow system or area of the body(6). Instead, Miller completed one year of post doctrinal training in radiation biology and radiation medicine for the Atomic Energy Commission at the University of Rochester, Case Western Reserve and Duke Universities(7). This was a new field that was attempting to discover the various effects of radiation on all parts of the body(8).

At the end of his training in radiation medicine, Miller was drafted into the army and assigned as a Captain to the Atomic Energy Project at the University of Rochester(9). While he was there, Miller “expressed his concern over the frequent use of fluoroscopy for examining young children, which led to a heated interdepartmental conference that resulted in more conservative radiological procedures, especially for children”(10). After noticing this, Miller became particularly interested in how radiation affects children(11).

At the end of his military tour in Rochester, Miller heard that two of the doctors he worked with would be conducting some research with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in Hiroshima. Miller thought this might be a perfect field study to learn more about how radiation affects young children, babies, and fetuses(12). Miller joined the ABCC as the chief ABCC Hiroshima’s children’s clinic(13). Miller and others examined children who survived the bombing after a Japanese pediatrician(14). They examined about 20 children a day, all between the ages of 9 and 19(15). Miller greatly enjoyed his time in Hiroshima and described it “it was a joyous time...it was like being 7 years old again and discovering many fascinating things around me”(16). After the work for the ABCC was complete, Miller stayed in Hiroshima for 6 more months to complete his pediatric study and to marry his wife(17). Miller met his wife, Haruko, at the ABCC where she was a nurse. Haruko also went by the nickname Holly(18). They were married at the U. S. Consulate in Kobe on February 21, 1955. They stayed in Hiroshima to complete Miller’s study of pediatric radiation before heading home to the United States. From his study, Miller concluded that “exposure to radiation before birth increased the incidence of mental retardation in children and small head circumference”(19). He also concluded that the closer the fetus is to the bomb’s epicenter, the greater risk there is for the child to have or develop health issues(20).

After his time in Hiroshima, Miller stayed on with the ABCC as a Professional Associate at the ABCC office in the National Academy of Sciences where he was responsible for recruiting staff and providing medical advice to the Chairman of the Division of Medical Sciences(21). While he was there, the ABCC proposed a second course of study of children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but they needed a Chief of Pediatrics to help plan and institute the study(22). Miller agreed to attend the University of Michigan to get his doctorate in public health with the study as the research for his dissertation(23). This also served to train Miller in epidemiology. After graduating with his doctorate, Miller took the position as the Chief of the Epidemiology Branch at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1961, where he remained for much of the rest of his career(24).

As the Chief of the Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute, Miller devoted himself to studying two different things: the link between cancer and congenital anomalies, and pediatric cancer epidemiology(25). To study the link between cancer and congenital anomalies, Miller conducted studies of different parings of cancers with genetic diseases. He studied the link between Wilms tumor and Aniridia, Down syndrome and leukemia, Ataxia-telangiectasia and leukemia and many more. In these studies, Miller concludes that there does seem to be a link between certain genetic disorders and certain types of cancer(26). In 1976, Dr. Miller became the Chief of the Clinical Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute(27). Throughout his career, Miller has had the opportunity to go to different sites around the world where people were exposed to vast amounts of radiation(28). He went to study Dioxin in Seveso, Italy as well as participating in the Air Force Agent Orange Study. He was able to go back to Hiroshima again, as well as Chernobyl and the Marshall Islands(29).

Dr. Miller was the Chief of the Clinical Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute until he retired in 1994(30). Throughout his career, Miller conducted a wide variety of studies and published most of his findings. When he retired in 1994, he was named a scientist emeritus at the National Cancer Institute and continued his research up until the year before his death(31). Dr. Miller died of colon cancer at his home on February 23, 2006 at the age of 84(32).

Putnam, Frank W.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82224702
  • Person
  • 1917-2006

Frank Putnam was born in New Britain, Connecticut, on August 3, 1917, to Austrian-born Franz and Henrietta Holzmann Poglitsch. His parents died of tuberculosis before he was three years old and he grew up in the New Britain Children's Home. Putnam was an excellent student in high school and was encouraged by a local bank manager, L. Marsden Hubbard. He changed his name around the time he left for Weslayan University in Middleton, Connecticut. He earned a BA in chemistry in 1939 and then an MA in 1940. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1942 and took a postdoctoral position at Duke University.

The Putnams left for Florida in 1955 to help found the University of Florida College of Medicine's biochemistry department. They stayed for ten years before moving on to Indiana University in Bloomington, to its new Division of Biological Sciences. In the 1970s and 1980s he made ten trips to Hiroshima and Nagasaki on behalf of ABCC/RERF.

Russell, Walter J.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2005037667
  • Person

Walter J. Russell received his medical education at St. Louis University Medical School. He graduated in 1952 with a Doctor of Medicine degree. He is a member of several learned societies. They are as follows: Diplomate American Board Radiology (radiology), American College of Radiology, American Roentgen Ray Society, Health Physics Society, Nippon Societas Radiologica, New York Academy of Sciences, Pan American Medical Association, Radiological Society of North America, Society of Nuclear Medicine. In July of 1959, he was appointed Chief of the Department of Radiology of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. Dr. Russell continued his to conduct his research with the ABCC successor organization, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation. His association with RERF continues today. Dr. Russell, his wife Mitsuko and children still live in Hiroshima Japan.

Schull, William J.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85802836
  • Person
  • 1922-2017

William J. Schull, PhD was an American scientist and geneticist famous for his research into the effects of ionizing radiation on the human body largely based on the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after World War II. Dr. Schull began his scientific career in radiation research in 1949 when he joined the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), established in Japan in 1946 by the United States National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council to study the effects of the bombings in accordance with a presidential directive from Harry S. Truman. From his first post as Head of the Department of Genetics at ABCC, Dr. Schull served many decades in the elite corps of scientists conducting research into the genetic impact of irradiation on human health. A professor emeritus of The Human Genetics Center, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas, Dr. Schull served on most of the major governmental and non-governmental committees formed throughout the 20th century to quantify the effects of ionizing radiation. He helped form the genetics department at the University of Michigan where he served as a professor from 1956 to 1972. As his career progressed, Dr. Schull frequently served in executive positions, chairing many of the governmental committees he served on and becoming a director, 1986-1987 and 1990-1991, and in 1996-1997, vice chairman and chief of research of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), established in 1975 as the follow-on organization to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. Dr. Schull was inducted into the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2001. In affirmation of his long and honorable service to the Japanese people, Dr. Schull received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class from the Emperor of Japan in 1992.

William Jackson Schull was born on March 17, 1922 to Gertrude Edna (maiden name Davenport) (1900-1938) and Eugene Shull (1896-1975) in Louisiana, Missouri. While Shull is the last name inscribed on his birth certificate, his name was changed to Schull while he was in elementary school. Dr. Schull spent most of his boyhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and graduated from that city’s Lincoln High School in 1939. In 1946, Dr. Schull earned a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1947, he earned a Master of Science in Zoology from the same university. He received a Doctor Of Philosophy in Genetics From Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio in 1949. Enlisting in December 1942, Dr. Schull served in the United States Army as a surgical technician with the 37th Infantry Division in the South Pacific until December 1945. In concert with his scientific work, Dr. Schull valued the preservation of the archival historic record and promoted the preservation of the history of the ABCC and RERF throughout his career. He died June 20, 2017, in Houston.

A detailed curriculum vitae is available for Dr. Schull in the control folder for his collection at the McGovern Historical Collection.