Parsons, Sister Marietta – Personal Collection

Inventory of personal records and reports by Sister Marietta Parsons, SMSM, Christchurch, NZ.

Reports submitted to Pacific Leprosy Foundation (PLF) on her visits to Samoa:

Photograph Journals : Photographs of people and families visited by Sister Marietta, each with her annotations and identification of those in the photographs. Mainly leprosy sufferers and their families photographed to display buildings or items provided by PLF.

• January/February 2005 : 17 computer copies of colour photographs
• December 2000: 8 copies of black and white photographs
• 21 November 2000: 6 copies of black and white photographs
• 9 October 2000: 9 copies of black and white photographs
• August 2000: 14 copies of black and white photographs
• November 1999: 14 copies of black and white photographs
• October/November 1999: 19 copies of black and white photographs
• September 1999: 9 copies of black and white photographs
• August 1999: 9 copies of black and white photographs
• Samoa 1999: 21 copies of black and white photographs

Project applications for equipment and materials:

Recommendations submitted by Sister Marietta to Pacific Leprosy Foundation on behalf of individuals in Samoa: As an example, one of the shorter reports cites the predicament of a young married man who had suffered from leprosy. He had a wife and four children and had recently built himself a small open-style house. His request was for a tank as he had no piped water and had to store his water, which was collected from a distant river, in small buckets. Itemisation of materials to be donated is given, which includes water tank, spouting, dow pipe, brackets, nails and timber, total cost $1040.90″

• 2003: Approx 20 individual reports
• 2002: Over 50 individual reports (maybe some duplicates)
• 2001: Approx 20 individual reports
• 2000: Approx 30 reports (some duplication)

Letters to Michael Gousmett of PLF

• 1999: Approx. 20 reports and letters reporting to Michael Gousmett
• Savaii, Samoa: master list of patients and status. (Total of 72 listed) and follow-up list
• Upolu, Samoa: master list of patients and status. (Total of 86 listed) and follow-up list

Newspaper articles: Samoa Observer 15 April 2004, p. 10. ‘Leprosy still in Samoa’.

Journal of the Pacific Leprosy Foundation, November 2000: containing report and photographs on visits to Samoa and Tonga.

Compiled by Dorothy McMenamin, 14 November, 2005

Entry made December 9, 2005