The Barkev S. Sanders Papers complement other holdings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin on Social Security, providing important documentation at the bureau level on the Social Security Administration (primarily the Bureau of Research and Statistics during the late 1930s and 1940s). The papers also cover Sanders' work for the U.S. Public Health Service, his personal background and education, and his freelance work as a consultant. Taken together, the collection allows for an in-depth examination of the ways in which statistics affects public policy. There is little personal material in the collection, although there are letters from family (some written in Armenian), friends, and colleagues.
The collection consists of correspondence, detailed departmental memoranda and reports, notes, graphs and statistical tables, writings, and notes. It is organized as GENERAL CAREER AND EDUCATION FILES, EARLY RESEARCH FILES, SOCIAL SECURITY FILES, PUBLIC HEALTH FILES, CONSULTANT'S FILES, and MISCELLANEOUS FILES. A portrait of Sanders received with the papers is filed in the Name File in the Visual Materials Archive.
The GENERAL CAREER AND EDUCATION FILES are arranged alphabetically by subject or by record type and include papers and articles written while still a student, correspondence related to job searches and education, vitas and a list of publications, material concerning his dissertation on the social and economic factors of childhood growth, writings, and correspondence with friends such as sociologist S. Colum Gilfillan and with various members of his family. Some of the family correspondence is written in Armenian, and its content is unknown. Also here is a file on Sanders' work with the Library of Congress on Armenian-English cataloging during the 1950s.
EARLY RESEARCH RECORDS are arranged chronologically by project and cover the period of his freelance work from 1929 to 1939. Within each project, individual folders are ordered alphabetically by subject. Drafts for articles, memoranda, notes, and reports account for the majority of the material in this series. Files on the Columbia University Research Council on no-fault insurance are not included, however.
SOCIAL SECURITY RECORDS, the most extensive portion of the collection, are arranged as administrative files and alphabetical subject files. The administrative files contain many of the lengthy, report-like, research memoranda that Sanders prepared, as well as a complete list of all such reports that he prepared during the period 1937 to 1950. These focus on studies Sanders conducted, including the eleven-volume Family Composition Study, 1938-1942, and the Rhode Island Cash Sickness Insurance Study, 1941-1951. Most of Sanders' research analyzed the financial status and medical needs of populations that relied on government aid for medical expenses. Also included in the administrative files are memoranda from Sanders to the staff of the Bureau of Research and Statistics, some division reports, and miscellaneous memos. The correspondence filed here, which Sanders titled his “reading file,” includes not only his own mail, but also copies of material circulated to him by others for informational purposes. The reading files cover only the period from April 1946 to June 1950.
Nearly all of the Social Security Subject Files contain correspondence and memoranda, summarized information collected by or sent to Sanders, and oftentimes drafts of articles and reports. Within each general subject category, individual folders are also filed alphabetically by keyword. Among the most extensive of the topical categories are the files on disability insurance, the Family Composition Study (the published study is available in the Historical Society library), Japanese health insurance planning, Social Security legislation, and the Rhode Island Study of cash benefits to workers.
The PUBLIC HEALTH RECORDS are arranged as alphabetical subject files and correspondence. The correspondence is organized in three ways: daily board files containing letters and memoranda circulated among members of the Division of General Health Services; Sanders' general research correspondence concerning the Division of General Health Services (during the years 1960-1962 only); and general correspondence from his work as consultant for the Division of Community Health Services. Also here is a file collected by Sanders concerning growing differences with his supervisors.
Several of the Public Health Subject Files, especially the files on the Kit Carton Study and the files on morbidity and mortality statistics, are also associated with these professional problems. The Kit Carton Study, which was an attempt to find new ways of gathering information to measure community health, offers comprehensive coverage including background notes, an interviewer's manual, working drafts, reports, and correspondence. Also here are two drafts and related correspondence on Sanders' unsuccessful attempt to publish his monograph, “Evaluation of Morbidity Surveys,” which argued that mortality statistics were no longer the best measure of community health.
The alphabetical FREELANCE RESEARCH RECORDS primarily pertain to Sanders' career after he left the civil service. Notable here is the file on his participation in the debate over Medicare in which he argued in articles and letters published in the Congressional Record that the cost of the program was substantially underestimated. Also present is information on his research on the retirement program of the United Mine Workers, the effect of radiation on the health of atomic energy workers, and his career-long interest in patents. The majority of the material in the last section, however, consists of information collected during the latter part of his career for the Patent, Trademark, and Copyright Research Institute of George Washington University.
Among the alphabetically-arranged and diverse MISCELLANEOUS FILES are folders on his involvement with the Foundation for Institutes of Research and Advanced Studies and course materials pertaining to teaching he did on health care statistics at several institutions.
