Department of Public Health Annual Reports, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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The records contain the Annual Reports of the Pittsburgh Department of Public Health, previously the Bureau of Public Health under the Department of Public Safety, for the years: 1871-1878, 1887-1899, 1907, and 1909-1916. Reports usually include annual statistics on the mortality rate, disease index and severity of major diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis, birth and marriages, sanitation concerns and statistics regarding what nuisances were addressed that year, as well as the statistics of the food inspection services. Noteworthy are the following reports: 1877--which includes the first appearance of a report of the Municipal Hospital. 1895--which saw a legislative overhaul granting the branches of the Bureau with significantly more administrative and punitive ability and the new divisions of Bacteriology and Chemical Section. 1907--which includes several maps (one showing the location of every case of tuberculosis in Pittsburgh) and the first report from the Tenement Housing Inspection, which includes photographs of turn of the century working class housing. 1909--which was the inaugural report of the new Department of Health and its new organizational plan.
About the Pittsburgh Department of Public Health
The Pittsburgh Department of Public Health traces its origins to 1852 with the creation of the Bureau of Public Health within the Department of Public Safety and began recording population health information (initially births, marriages, and deaths). The Bureau was managed by a Board of Health, which included several elected officials such as, a Health Officer, the Health Physician, and the Chief Inspectors of Sanitation and Food. The 1887 Annual Report includes an overview of statistics collected between the years of 1852-1887. In 1909, the Bureau became the Department of Public Health. Through the years the Bureau/Department expanded its data collection to classify and investigate specific incidents such as significant outbursts of smallpox or typhoid fever in the city, the growing need for housing regulation and waste management, as well as a comprehensive inspection system for foods. Other reports include information on: vaccinations, mortality, cataloguing death statistics by disease, cause, location, age, ethnicity, etc. In later years, the department was divided into three Bureaus: Infectious Diseases, Sanitation, and Food Inspection. At this time, it is not clear the exact date when the Pittsburgh Department of Public Health ceased to exists. But ultimately the functions it fulfilled were assumed by the Allegheny County Department of Health and other goverment agencies.
