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Title: Charles Nelson Leach papers
Date (inclusive): 1914-1965
Collection Number: 2011C40
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: English, with some materials in French
Physical Description:
11 manuscript boxes, 8 oversize boxes, 3 sound lacquer discs, memorabilia
(12.12 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Diaries and photographs relating to Commission for Relief in Belgium and American Relief Administration activities in World
War I-era Europe; correspondence, reports, and collected materials relating to internees and internment camps in the Japanese-occupied
Philippines; and correspondence and printed materials relating to the Belgian-American Educational Foundation and its 1955
expedition to the Belgian Congo.
Creator:
Leach, Charles N. (Charles Nelson)
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Boxes 13 and OCM11 may not be used without permission of the archivist. The rest of the collection is open for research; materials
must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection,
they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2011.
[Identification of item], Charles Nelson Leach papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Born on July 2, 1884 in Burlington, Vermont, Charles Nelson Leach headed west after graduating from high school, attending
Stanford University from 1904 to 1908. After working briefly in a sulfuric acid plant to support himself, Leach continued
his education at Stanford Medical School, receiving his M.D. in 1913. He then worked in the medical department for the 1915
Panama-Pacific International Exposition, until he was called by Herbert Hoover in 1915 to go to Europe with the Commission
for Relief in Belgium (CRB).
Leach worked with the American Ambulance at Neuilly-sur-Seine (outside of Paris) at Red Cross Hospital #1 and served at a
mobile surgical facility in Flanders until the United States entered World War I in 1917. At that point he joined the U.S.
Army Reserve Officers' Corps, working at the same Red Cross hospital on an Army Medical Corps assignment. He also completed
temporary duty with the Canadian Casualty Clearing Stations. After the war ended, Leach served with the American Relief Administration
(ARA) in Eastern Europe from 1918 to 1920. He was based in Vienna, though he traveled throughout Europe during this time.
In 1920, Leach was hired by The Rockefeller Foundation and sent to Johns Hopkins to earn his public health degree. Upon completion
of the degree, Leach gained field experience in Australia, then went to the Philippines to assist with public health issues.
In 1922, Leach married Florence Warden Dixon in Hong Kong. After living together in Manila and serving in Tokyo after the
1923 earthquake, the couple returned to the United States in 1924. Leach was sent to Alabama by the International Health Division
of the Rockefeller Foundation to work on hookworm and other health problems, then to Mississippi in 1927 to assist with flood
relief. After receiving further training in New York, Leach and his family moved to Europe (first Prague, then Vienna), where
from roughly 1931 to 1934 he worked on diphtheria and other public health problems in Central and Eastern Europe. Leach next
found himself in China from 1934 to 1936 as a Visiting Professor of Public Health at the Peking Union Medical College. In
1936, after being given training by The Rockefeller Foundation, he returned to Montgomery, Alabama to run a rabies laboratory
in collaboration with the Alabama Department of Public Health, which he did for the next five years. Leach was then sent
to the Burma Road to assist with malaria control, but he was in Manila when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Leach was interned by the Japanese in the Philippines, first at the Santo Tomas camp, where he established a camp hospital,
then at Los Baños, where he served on the Executive Committee and was involved in establishing healthcare arrangements. In
late 1943 he was among those repatriated on the
MS Gripsholm, arriving in New York on December 1st. Leach, along with some of his fellow internees, was featured in the December 20th
issue of
LIFE magazine.
After a six month recovery period (he suffered from weakened eyesight due to malnutrition), Leach was sent to London in 1944
by The Rockefeller Foundation to restart their European activities. He once again traveled extensively throughout Europe,
working with institutions and providing Rockefeller assistance to scientists resuming their work that had been interrupted
by the war. Leach also traveled with the British Red Cross behind German lines into Holland to assist with nutrition and to
the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to help the freed prisoners.
In 1950, Leach retired from The Rockefeller Foundation after 29 years with them. He moved to Alabama and took a position with
the Tennessee Valley Authority, supervising malaria control. Not long after, he retired fully due to illness. He returned
to Vermont, where he assisted with local medical coverage, did public health work, and served on the board of the American
Red Cross and as a trustee of the University of Vermont. In 1955, as a member of the Belgian-American Educational Foundation
(BAEF), a successor to the Commission for Relief in Belgium, Leach traveled with an expedition to the Belgian Congo to evaluate
health services and facilities there. His final international project was in 1956, when he supervised the refugee camp health
service at Eisenstadt, Austria, a destination of refugees from the Hungarian revolution. Increasing health problems in the
1960s caused Leach to slow down considerably, and he passed away in 1971 at the age of 86.
Scope and Content of Collection
The materials in this collection cover three periods of Leach's life: his work in World War I-era Europe with the Commission
for Relief in Belgium and the American Relief Administration (1917-1920); his internment by the Japanese in the Philippines
during World War II and his return home thereafter (1942-1945); and his involvement with the Belgian-American Educational
Foundation, particularly his attendance on an expedition to the Belgian Congo (largely the 1950s).
The World War I-era portion of the collection consists of diaries kept and photo albums created by Leach during his time in
Europe. The three diaries, covering the years 1917 to 1919, include both handwritten entries and pasted in newspaper clippings,
ticket stubs, photographs, and other memorabilia (some in French). The entries cover Leach's daily life and touch on his social
outings (tennis games, dinners in Paris, opera performances), work (operative procedures, talks given to troops), wartime
conditions (zeppelins over Paris, the devastation at the front), and travels. A 1917 photo album, titled "Members of the Commission
for Relief in Belgium," contains portraits, some of which are signed by the pictured individual with his name and at times
a note or mailing address. There are also three photo albums created during the course of Leach's work with the American Relief
Administration that contain photographs (some captioned) of the various areas and peoples of Europe that he saw on his travels.
The World War II-era portion of the collection consists of correspondence to and from Leach, documentation of internment camp
conditions, collected materials, and Relief for Americans in Philippines materials. The correspondence consists largely of
inquiries sent to Leach about other internees in the Philippines camps (as a result of his picture having appeared in
LIFE magazine), with his responses, plus welcome home letters, job offers, and requests to speak. Correspondents include Herbert
Hoover, Nick Roosevelt, Ray Lyman Wilbur, and Rockefeller Foundation colleagues such as Raymond Fosdick and George Strode.
It would appear that Leach originally organized this correspondence alphabetically, and an attempt was made to recreate the
original order. Where this was not possible, the items were placed into a general correspondence folder.
Leach and some fellow internees took it upon themselves to prepare reports documenting the conditions in the internment camps
for the use of the U.S. government. In addition to copies of the reports on Santo Tomas and Los Baños, there are a variety
of charts providing demographic data about the internees, as well as information about supplies and nutrition in the camps.
Finally, there is a small amount of collected material from this period, including newspaper clippings, Leach's vaccination
records from the internment camps, and materials from the Relief for Americans in Philippines organization, which Leach corresponded
with regularly when attempting to provide information about internees remaining in the Philippines after his repatriation.
There are also some sound recordings from this time period. One, from May 21, 1943, is a sound disc sent to the Leach family
by a ham radio operator who picked up a Tokyo broadcast of the reading of a letter from Leach to his family. The other two
sound discs, believed to be from 1950, are recordings of music and of a man talking to his dog, probably recorded from the
radio.
The 1950s portion of the collection consists of correspondence, writings, collected and printed materials related to the Belgian-American
Educational Foundation (BAEF) expedition to the Belgian Congo in 1955, as well as materials relating to the BAEF more generally.
The correspondence, to and from Leach, largely relates to the planning of the expedition to the Belgian Congo (some of it
is in French). Leach's travel diary from the trip is also included, as is a draft write-up of the purpose of the expedition.
There are also numerous travel brochures, articles, and newspaper clippings about the Belgian Congo. The BAEF materials include
the Foundation's by-laws and history, a few pieces of general correspondence, event invitations and menus, and the text of
some speeches given by Herbert Hoover on commemorative occasions.
The increment includes correspondence between Charles and his wife, Florence, records related to child welfare in Belgium
during and after WWI, and materials related to the 1923 Japanese earthquake.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons
World War, 1939-1945 -- Philippines
Philippines -- History -- Japanese occupation, 1942-1945
World War, 1914-1918 -- Civilian relief
International relief
Concentration camps
Los Baños Internment Camp
Commission for Relief in Belgium (1914-1930)
American Relief Administration
Santo Tomas Internment Camp (Manila, Philippines)