written by CFPRT Scholars Mario A. Gallardo and Alex Ngyuen

Introduction

This past year, we’ve been working on the Jonathan Fielding Papers. Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding is a Distinguished Professor and the namesake of the Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA. He is well-known within the field of public health, serving in a variety of capacities in different corporations, non-profit organizations, and public service. Throughout his 40 year career in public health, he is perhaps best known for his 16 years as the head of Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health. Dr. Fielding has served on national task forces and worked as a Senior Vice President at Johnson & Johnson. This collection contains materials from his professional life, parts of his youth, and many of his notes.

Below, we’ve each chosen one factotum from the collection we’ve found interesting, one item that stuck in our memories, and one thing we learned from this entire experience. 

What is the most interesting item you found while processing the Fielding Papers?

Alex:

Dr. Fielding and Michael Dukakis

Throughout Dr. Fielding’s career, he has always been somewhat connected to former Governor of Massachusetts and former Democratic nominee for President, Michael Dukakis. Governor Dukakis gave Dr. Fielding his first high profile position as Commissioner of Public Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1975. Dr. Fielding served there for 4 years before moving out to California. Then, in 1992 during the Clinton v. Bush election, Dr. Fielding again corresponds with former Governor Dukakis to show his support for then-candidate Clinton. Finally, the two reunite when Governor Dukakis begins teaching at UCLA in the 2010s. Dr. Fielding’s tangential connection with national politics provides a glimpse into his broad network of connections that he has accumulated throughout his life. To highlight this, I’ve chosen a picture taken the day Dr. Fielding is sworn in as Commissioner of Public Health.

Left to right: Governor Dukakis, Lucy Benson Secretary of Human Services for Massachusetts, Gertrude Aronson (Dr. Fielding’s mother), a young Jonathan Fielding, and Robert Fielding (Dr. Fielding’s father). The picture is dated 1975.

Mario:

Letter grade for restaurants

I have chosen to outline the Restaurant Letter Grade system created and fostered by Dr. Fielding for its significance in the Los Angeles area. While working on Fielding’s collection, the amount of information makes it difficult to choose a single item to highlight. The Letter Grade System he helped to incorporate is an important indicator of food safety in Los Angeles. Seen by almost every single resident in Los Angeles County, the importance of these signs not only highlights Dr. Fielding’s continual pursuit of greater health awareness, but of his accomplishments of creating an easily identifiable and applicable standard. These standard grades, similar to the grading system of American public schools, along with the usage of bright colors as indicators of food safety, outlines the importance of interoperable visual language. In the folder shown are several revised samples of the letter grade appearance and in what ways the grade cards have changed to continue to exude authority over food safety. These designs are dated 2006.

What piece of ephemera from this collection caught your eye? 

Alex:

Dr. Fielding the Performer

One thing that has stuck in my memory while processing Dr. Fielding’s papers is his artistic performative side. Dr. Fielding, throughout his youth and all the way through his college years, performed in a variety of capacities. In middle and high school, he performed in the school orchestra playing the cello. Then, at Williams College in his undergraduate career, he participates in Glee Club and performs in a production of Guys and Dolls as one of two Shady Broadway Characters. The last instance of him performing is at Harvard University where he performs in the Harvard Medical Chorus. This small detail of a Dr. Fielding who liked to perform in his youth brings a bit of relatability and quirkiness to him. I’m sure most people have some sort of performance background whether it be a class play or a talent show. But the repeated performances and musical groups that Dr. Fielding participates in shows his enjoyment of being up on stage and reveling in having an audience to watch you.

Mario:

French blood alcohol converter

One of the more intriguing pieces of ephemera in this collection was a French blood alcohol converter/calculator. When I first saw the item I was slightly confused as to what it was- The box it came in was relatively small, and the item—itself—was slimmer than my own phone. Having no experience reading or speaking French, I wasn’t too sure what the instructions on the back were indicating. The item in question was acquired during Dr. Fielding’s trip to France as a consultant in 1995-1996, where he was observing the health care system of the French in comparison with the one back in the United States. The logo of the company, plastered all over the box, reminded me of the logo of the German Autobahn, featured on Kraftwerk’s Autobahn album. The converter was still functional when I tried turning it back on and trying to decipher the instructions and images on the back with my knowledge of Spanish and Italian. As strange as the converter was to me, being able to figure out the purpose of it felt like I was piecing together a small puzzle of my own for a piece of technology that I had no previous experience with.

How has working with Dr. Fielding’s papers furthered your research or professional goals? What have you gained from processing this collection specifically?

Alex:

As a student at the Fielding School of Public Health, I approached the opportunity to work with these papers as a chance to get to know the namesake of my school. Little did I know that I would come to have an intimate knowledge of Dr. Fielding’s life as presented through these papers. What I chose above to highlight was just a small fraction of things that surprised and impressed me about Dr. Fielding, his career, and his life. Learning the skills that came with processing this collection have been valuable to me. The field of public health itself very sparsely concerns itself with the past. Since public health is focused on preventing illness and health problems in the future, it was a nice opportunity to be able to look through the history of the field through Dr. Fielding’s eyes. It was also enlightening to see parts of American history through his eyes. As a somewhat prominent figure on the national stage and a very prominent figure in Los Angeles in public health, it is interesting to see the accumulation of relationships, projects, and materials over his 40-year career. What I appreciate most about working on this collection is the perspective of a titan who has done much to transform the field I am about to enter. I hope to use the same vision and dedication that I saw in every piece of paper Dr. Fielding kept in my own line of work in the future.

Mario:

Dr. Fielding’s papers have given me the opportunity to continue improving my skills processing collections. As a graduate student in the Department of Information Sciences focusing in Archival Studies, this work gave me the opportunity to apply theory to practice. The Fielding Papers was the largest collection I ever worked with and came with several challenges. Having processed collections before, these challenges focused more on time management, physical processing, and data entry on a larger scale. By working with Alex as a subject specialist, I was able to efficiently process the collection and properly assess a subject that I had no previous experience in. Processing and appraising collections which the archivist may not always have a knowledgeable background is not uncommon. The CFPRT granted me the opportunity to observe the career of a distinguished faculty member of UCLA’s Department of Public Health and expand my subjects of interest. Working in the CFPRT and with Alex allowed me to better represent the subject material of the Fielding Papers. With the knowledge processing this collection, my skills continue to hone and the practical application of accessioning and processing collections continue to improve.