Subject Files
setName: label: See more items in
content: Patricia Bath Papers
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1960-2016
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1585, Series 2
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This series consists of a vertical subject file arranged alphbetically by topic.  Dr. Bath maintained a large vertical file that included a wide range of subjects of personal and professional interest to her. Documentation about her early professional work with the Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation and the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness (AIPB) is found here along with her many international collaborations with agencies and individuals to combat blindness and promote eye health. Dr. Bath co-founded with Dr. Alfred Cannon and Dr. Aaron Ifekwunigwe the AIPB and created outreach programs for blindness prevention in developing countries, including treating patients and educating local doctors and staff. Dr. Bath traveled to Tunisia, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Liberia. Ghana, Sri Lanka, and Japan, providing training for local doctors to combat and treat ophthalmology issues. Dr. Bath was an advocate for making blindness prevention a public health issue and drawing attention to healthcare disparities in African American communities and bringing these concerns to government officials and advocating for policy changes. Dr. Bath was also very interested in Black history and especially Black scientists, physicians, and inventors. 

Dr. Bath's profesional work at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, the Department of Ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute; work with the Ophthalmology Residency Training Program at UCLA-Drew; and at Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital in southern Los Angeles are well represented here.