The Papers provide a view of the working atmosphere of a big city hospital. They also give information about the health reform movement, the politicization of physicians and the relation of the health reform movement to other radical movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
The collection is divided into four series. They are the Student Health Organization records, the Lincoln Hospital records, Mullan's Writing, and a Subject File.
The STUDENT HEALTH ORGANIZATION (SHO) records include documents and communications from 1968 to 1969 dealing with the Chicago SHO and the origin of the SHO National Service Center. There are also copies of many publications by SHOs in other cities from 1966 to 1969, including Catalyst, Contact, Current, Encounter, In VIVO, Up Against the Lab Bench, Yes, and a New York City-SHO Newsletter.
The LINCOLN HOSPITAL records include materials relating directly to Mullan's involvement in the Lincoln Collective and the 1971 billing action, including minutes of Collective meetings from 1970 to 1973. There are also many records about health and social problems in South Bronx and the hospital staff's attempts to alleviate them. Materials pertaining to the day-to-day routines and considerations of hospital administration, covering topics ranging from emergency room procedure to attempts to get the doctors to dress better, are also present.
MULLAN'S WRITING includes a corrected typescript of White Coat, Clenched Fist, along with many articles Mullan wrote from 1968 to 1980 including the column “Mullings” which appeared in Hospital Physician. The articles are arranged in chronological order.
The SUBJECT FILE, in addition to general articles on health activism, contains copies, 1964-1966, of Borborygmi, the University of Southern California Medical student journal, and information about the Community of Interns and Residents of New York City from June 1969 to November 1970 and about health conditions and services in South Bronx. Information about organizations involved in the health reform movement such as Aspira, Inc., the Adolescent Center, the Community Mental Health Center, the Dominican Sisters Home Health Services, Logos, the Neighborhood Medical Care Demonstration, the South Bronx Clergy Coalition and the St. Francis Neighborhood Family Care Center, is also available. Finally, there are materials about other activist activities in the South Bronx, such as a pamphlet about the Young Lords Party, and also some newspaper clippings on a variety of topics.
