Dr. Leona Baumgartner was the first woman to serve as Commissioner of the Department of Health for New York City. She held that office from 1954 to 1962 under Mayor Robert F. Wagner, who was the first mayor to appoint women agency heads in nearly 40 years. Baumgartner worked her way up at the Department of Health, starting as a child hygiene instructor in 1937. By 1949 she was assistant commissioner, the position she served in, until being elevated to commissioner.
Dr. Leona Baumgartner holds Elvis Presley’s elbow as he receives a Polio vaccine backstage at the Ed Sullivan Show, October 28, 1956. “He is setting a fine example for the youth of the country,” New York City’s health commissioner, Leona Baumgartner, told the Times. Department of Health Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Letter from Commissioner Baumgartner to Elvis Presley thanking him for helping to raise awareness of the new polio vaccine by getting the shot from health officials in front of the cameras. REC0050 Health Commissioners Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.
She was born in 1902 in Chicago, but grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. Her studies at Yale, where she earned both a Ph.D. and M.D., brought her to the northeast. She spent the next several decades of her career in New York City.
Robert F. Wagner with Dr. Leona Baumgartner, Commissioner of Health, and Dr. Jonas Salk, June 1, 1955. Department of Health Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Her records in the Health Commissioners Papers (REC0050) at the Municipal Archives cover a rich array of issues facing the city from polio vaccination and revision of the city’s sanitary code to health issues abroad and contraception at home. She also oversaw the removal of the race or color field from birth certificates, and the fluoridation of city drinking water, both controversial decisions at the time. There is unique focus on child health and education as well, given Baumgartner’s history at the department.
In 1954, Baumgartner successfully lobbied for New York City to be part of nationwide testing of a new polio vaccine. After the Salk vaccine passed the testing phase, the Department of Health administered it to millions of New York City residents, effectively eliminating the public health threat the disease had posed for decades. The Department turned the campaign into a systematic vaccination program for school-age children, even soliciting Elvis Presley to help in the campaign. These events are well chronicled in sub-subgroup 8 of the collection.
Also documented in these records are Baumgartner’s travels to India, the USSR and a number of other countries in 1958 to meet with health officials and scientists. Her nearly 10-week long trip during the height of the Cold War included consulting on child and maternal health.
Commissioner Baumgartner writes to a Belgian official about her planned trip to Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the USSR as a representative of American women in the health field. REC0050 Health Commissioners Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.
Baumgartner’s tenure also stood out in her employment of television and radio in communicating public health issues. She was the first health commissioner to appear on television. She appeared on WNYC radio as well as local network affiliates and national television.
Commissioner Leona Baumgartner and Mayor Robert F. Wagner at the 90th Anniversary program for the Department of Health, May 15, 1956. Photo by Bob Olivero. Department of Health Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Baumgartner left the Department of Health in 1962 to become Assistant Administrator of the Agency for International Development, a new agency created by President John F. Kennedy. In 1967 she accepted a teaching position at Harvard Medical School, where she worked until retiring in 1972.
Radio program listing for 1959 health-related broadcast featuring Commissioner Baumgartner as well as other public health officials. REC0050 Health Commissioners Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.
Letter from Commissioner Baumgartner to the CBS Office of Press Information thanking the network for helping arrange for Elvis Presley to get the polio vaccine at their New York television studio in 1956. REC0050 Health Commissioners Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.
Letter of introduction for Commissioner Baumgartner and the wife of the late Burmese independence leader Aung San ahead of her trip to Southeast Asia. REC0050 Health Commissioners Papers, NYC Municipal Archives.