A physician and naturalist, Oswald Hope Robertson worked at the Rockefeller Institute, the Peking Union Medical College, and at the medical school of University of Chicago (1927-1951). With a broad range of research interests, Robertson contributed important work on the transmission of pneumonia, the disinfection of air with glycol vapors, and later in his career, on the physiology and ecology of salmonid fishes. He is best remembered, however, as the creator of the first blood bank, established for use by British and American forces during the First World War. The Robertson Papers contain correspondence, notes, articles, and notebooks on many of Robertson's major research interests, including his work on blood. His early work on salmonid ecology is represented in a journal and eleven notebooks stemming from fieldwork in the lakes of the Wind River Range in northwestern Wyoming, 1942-1951. There is also interesting material on the Research Corporation (New York City) concerning patents on glycol vapors and air sterilizers, as well as notes and manuscripts of papers on morphine experiments, canine pneumococcus, bacteremia, and the effects of hydrocortisone.

Working on the Army Epidemiological Board in the 1940s, Joseph Stokes, Jr. discovered the value of gamma globulin for the prevention of epidemic hepatitis. His subsequent research included immunization against influenza, protection against poliomyelitis by gamma globulin, antigenic difference between epidemic and serum hepatitis, immunization procedures in mumps, development of a vaccine against measles. His clinical focus was on the causes and prevention of childhood infectious diseases. His administrative work includes the transformation of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics. His community work consists of public health and environment control issues.