The article points to some ways of approaching the history of public health in Brazil through use of documentation from the country's Special Public Health Service collection (SESP/FSESP), a valuable source that can contribute to achieving a broader understanding of the immunization campaigns undertaken in the latter half of the 20th century. In conjunction with documents from the Fundo Cláudio Amaral and interviews with individuals involved in immunization campaigns (all stored at Casa de Oswaldo Cruz's Department of Archives and Documentation), the SESP documentation helps paint an elucidating picture of many of the sanitation activities carried out in Brazil over the course of some six decades.
SESP; FSESP; immunization campaigns; smallpox
