Title:

Letter from Mary Lasker to Florence Mahoney

Creator:

Lasker, Mary

Recipient:

Mahoney, Florence

Date:

23 July 1945

Description:

This letter to her friend and political associate Florence Mahoney reflected the beginnings of Mary Lasker's Congressional lobbying for federal sponsorship of medical research, which until World War II had been insignificant. The budget of the National Institute of Health (then still singular), successor to the U.S. Public Health Service's Hygienic Laboratory, did not exceed $700,000 on the eve of the war, compared to $4.7 million provided by private foundations for medical research. Government research focused on agriculture, including animal diseases, but not human health. Lasker convinced Florida Senator Claude Pepper to hold hearings in the summer of 1945 on the need for greatly increased federal funds for medical research, which Lasker referred to in her letter. The hearings, which featured expert "citizen witnesses" and health data, all provided by Lasker, set a pattern for her style of lobbying over the next two decades.

Original Repository:

Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Mary Lasker Papers

Location:

Box: 392

Rights:

Reproduced with permission of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation.

Genre:

Letters (correspondence)

Format:

Text

Extent:

1 pages

Language:

English

Legacy Source Citation:

Original Repository. Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Mary Lasker Papers. 12417

Legacy ID:

TLBBDR

NLM ID:

101584665X56

Profiles Collection:

The Mary Lasker Papers

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584665X56

Story Section:

Biographical Information