History of Medicare oral history collection, circa 1965-1968

Biographical Note

Peter Corning was an interviewer for Columbia University's Oral History Research Office and conducted the interview's for the OHRO's Social Security project. While a PhD candidate at New York University, he wrote a history of medicare for the Social Security Administration's Office of Research and Statistics. This history was published by the SSA in 1969 as "THE EVOLUTION OF MEDICARE . . . from idea to law"

Scope and Contents

The History of Medicare collection is primarily comprised of audio recordings created over the course of Peter A. Corning's work on "THE EVOLUTION OF MEDICARE . . . from idea to law", which was written for the Social Security Administration's Office of Research and Statistics. Corning's research reels include dictated notes from conducting archival research for the project in closed repositories in Washington D.C., Madison, Wisconsin, and New York City; synopses of documents in the records of the Social Security Administration, the Committee on Economic Security, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare at the National Archives; correspondence in the personal papers of Nelson H. Cruikshank and Wilbur J. Cohen at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin; documents in the library of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO); and the personal files of Jacob Javits, Elizabeth Wickenden, Winslow Carlton and others. Additional recordings include lectures and summaries of news articles. Also included are dictated notes from in-person interviews with Frank Frantz, Herman Brontman, Marian English and oral history interviews conducted for the project with Charles Odell, Jacob Baker, Norman Thomas, Nelson Cruikshank and Barbara Armstrong. The collection also contains a group interview with Jay Constantine, William Reidy, and Mal Schechter conducted by Robert Butler in consultation with Peter Corning

Subjects

• AFL-CIO.
• Armstrong, Barbara Nachtrieb, 1890-1976.
• Baker, Jacob.
• Carlton, Winslow, 1907-1994.
• Cohen, Wilbur J. (Wilbur Joseph), 1913-1987.
• Cruikshank, Nelson H.
• Health insurance.
• Interviews.
• Javits, Jacob K. (Jacob Koppel), 1904-1986.
• Medicare.
• National Council of Senior Citizens.
• Odell, Charles.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Ross, Bernard H., 1934-2010.
• Rubin, Howard.
• United States. Committee on Economic Security.
• United States. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
• United States. Social Security Administration.
• Wickenden, Elizabeth, 1909-2001.