Gamble, Clarence J. papers, 1920-1970s (inclusive), 1920-1966 (bulk). H MS c23

Gamble, Clarence J. papers, 1920-1970s (inclusive), 1920-1966 (bulk). H MS c23

The Clarence J. Gamble Archive in the Countway Library of Harvard Medical School is a major collection of correspondence and related materials devoted to the subject of population control. Dr. Gamble has been ranked along with Margaret Sanger and Dr. Robert L. Dickinson as one of the three major figures in American birth control during its most crucial years of change. Gamble was an indefatiguable letter-writer and his correspondence is a rich source of day-to-day information about what was going on with the development and testing of contraceptive methods, changing attitudes of the medical and health professions, legislative reform and education of the public, governmental involvement on local and national levels, and demographic studies in the Third World after the post-World War II population explosion.
Dr. Gamble's papers were presented to the Countway Library in 1970 by his wife Sarah, and the Gamble children. The vast collection (estimated at well over 100,000 pieces) has been processed over a period of years and is now contained in a total of 266 manuscript boxes, plus addenda. Highlights of Dr. Gamble's career are given in the accompanying chronology, which is followed by a list of his publications and outline of the archive's arrangement. A detailed folder-by-folder description of the papers makes up the main body of this Inventory, and there is a selected index of correspondents at the end.