1945: Governor works to improve Alaska Territory health care
President Franklin Roosevelt appoints a physician as territorial governor. Dr. Ernest Gruening launches a health care program to improve conditions across the Alaska Territory and works to improve the health of Alaska Natives. As a former managing editor of the New York Tribune and The Nation, Gruening had become interested in minority rights and sought to extend citizenship to residents of U.S. territories. He advocates Alaska statehood.
- Theme
- Federal-Tribal Relations
- Region
- Arctic, Northwest Coast, Subarctic
Dr. C. Earl Albrecht, served as the Territory of Alaska’s first full-time health commissioner from 1945 to 1956, an appointment by Governor Ernest Gruening. During those years Albrecht targeted tuberculosis as Alaska’s greatest health crisis.
Courtesy Alaska State Library, Alaska Department of Health & Social Services Photograph Collection