The records of the American Medical Center for Burma span the years 1945-1966, with the bulk of the material falling between 1959-1965. The American Medical Center for Burma, with a main office in New York, was a nonsectarian, nonprofit organization founded in 1946 to support the Namkham Hospital and Midwives and Nurses Training School founded by Gordon Stifler Seagrave, the famed "Burma Surgeon," in Namkhan, Burma, in 1922. The American Medical Center for Burma was reorganized in 1959 to give even greater financial support to Seagrave and the Namkham Hospital. The records of the American Medical Center for Burma consist primarily of correspondence between Seagrave and the staff, officers, and Board of Directors of the organization and are organized into the following series: General Correspondence, Special Correspondence, Financial Contributors' Correspondence, Newspaper Clippings, Printed Matter, Miscellany, Addition, and Oversize. The main body of correspondence is supported by administrative files of the organization, newspaper clippings, printed matter, financial records, and a galley proof of one of Seagrave's books, published in 1960 by Ballantine Books.

The correspondence between the American Medical Center for Burma and Seagrave for the years 1946-1954 was originally held by the W. W. Norton Publishing Company and is the smallest segment of the records. With the reorganization of the American Medical Center for Burma in 1959, the records and files become more detailed and comprehensive. Following the death of Seagrave in 1965, the American Medical Center for Burma dissolved itself as a corporate entity.

Because Seagrave's personal papers were destroyed during World War II, the records of the American Medical Center for Burma became the only readily available source of material concerning Seagrave and his work at the Namkham Hospital. After his death, the Namkham Hospital was nationalized by the Burmese government. Any records at the hospital then became the possession of the Burmese government.

The records are rich in material concerning the last twenty years of Seagrave's life. His activities as a physician, his role in American foreign policy, and his financial difficulties with the hospital, with the procurement of supplies for the hospital, and with the Burmese government, are documented in the collection. His correspondence with the staff, officials, and Board of Directors of the American Medical Center for Burma, and his correspondence with his family and with members of the Burmese government, copies of which are generally included in the American Medical Center for Burma's files, indicate the problems involved in supporting, administering, and directing this charitable institution.

The files of the American Medical Center for Burma are concerned not only with Seagrave directly, but also with the problem of fund-raising and the financial support of the Namkham Hospital. The records contain correspondence, notes, and memoranda exchanged by members of the organization with officials of the Burmese government and members of the hospital staff at Namkham, especially the American doctors and their spouses who were sent to Burma by the American Medical Center for Burma to aid and assist Seagrave.

Of special interest in this collection is correspondence concerning the growth of the American Peace Corps in the 1960s, Thomas A. Dooley, revolutions in some of the semi-autonomous states of Burma against the central government, and the difficulties encountered by foreigners traveling or living in Burma.

In addition to Seagrave other correspondents include Joseph F. Newhall, Ruth Newhall, Barbara Olmanson, Myron Donald Olmanson, Marion Seagrave, and Sterling Seagrave. The collection also contains the correspondence of members of the American Medical Center for Burma such as Rothwell H. Brown, Fanny McConnell Ellison, John Scott Everton, David McKendree Key, Harold L. Oram, R. S. Radvin, Haldor Reinholt, John F. Rich, and Howard P. Wilson.