Arnold Schaefer Papers

Collection

Identifier: EBL-0070

Staff Only

Collection Scope and Content Summary

Papers of nutrition scientist Arnold Schaefer (1917-1992) consists of seven feet of films and slides, primarily related to nutrition education and international nutrition surveys. The collection contains two feet of documents from various nutrition surveys. Also the collection includes nutrition surveys from the following countries: Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, Uruguay, and Vietnam. Majority of the collection's materials seem to come from the late 1950s and early 1960s. Shaefer made important contributions to the study of folic acid.

Dates

1940 - 1980

Creator

Schaefer, Arnold Edward (Person)

Notes about Access to this Collection

All collections are subject to applicable Vanderbilt University privacy and confidentiality policies. Collection specific restrictions: No Restrictions.

Reproduction Rights

Copyright is retained by History of Medicine Collections, Eskind Biomedical Library, Vanderbilt University or is retained by the authors of specific published items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Historical or Biographical Note

Arnold Schaefer (1917-1992) was a nutrition scientist noted for his contributions to the study of folic acid. As an undergraduate at North Dakota State he studied selenium toxicity under Moxon, co-authoring 3 papers in 1938. Then he received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1947. From 1947-1951, Shaefer made important contributions to the understanding of the role of folic acid and vitamin B-12. He was the Head of the Nutrition Research Department at the Squibb Institute for Medical Research (1951-1955); Executive Director of the ICNND (1955-1965); Head of the Nutrition Section of the Office of International Research at the NIH (1965-1967); Director of the Ten State Nutrition Survey (1969); nutrition consultant for the Pan American Health Organization (1970-1973); Lydia Roberts Lectureship at the University of Puerto Rico (1970); and Director of the Swanson Center for Nutrition Professor of Clinical Nutrition and Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (1973-1983). He also served as Secretary (1960) and President (1966) of the American Institute of Nutrition; President of FASEB (1968); Fellow at the Institute of Nutrition (1985); and Fellow at the American Public Health Association. He received the Conrad A. Elvehjem Award from the AIN in 1976. Dr. Schaefer died in Omaha, Nebraska on February 18, 1992.