Frederick Julian Margolis (1915-1991) worked for two years at Children’s Hospital in Detroit, MI and then settled in Kalamazoo, MI in 1943, becoming the second pediatrician to practice in the area. After 10 years of work, he took a sabbatical and moved his family to Fort Defiance, AZ on the Navajo-Hopi Indian Reservation in 1954. He worked there for two years as a U.S. Public Health Service physician at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Fort Defiance Hospital, providing medical services to the Navajo and Hopi, before returning to Kalamazoo.

While at Fort Defiance, Dr. Margolis worked with members of the Native American community including traditional healers, medicine men Billy Norton and Denet Chili Bitsoi; Navajo community liaisons including Paul Jones, Navajo Nation tribal chairman; and Annie Wauneka, Navajo Nation tribal council member and health crusader. While in Fort Defiance, Dr. Margolis recruited film director Rex Fleming to Fort Defiance to create three public health patient education films on diarrhea, tuberculosis and sanitation, respectively. This was the continuation of a life-long interest on the part of Dr. Margolis in producing medical professional education and patient health education films.

This collection contains digital file images of color photographs taken (mostly) by Dr. Margolis between 1954 and1956 in and around Fort Defiance, AZ and in other locations in northern Arizona and northern New Mexico. The original photographic prints are not held in this collection; a PowerPoint in the collection is the source record from which digital file images are collected. Individual image files (JPEG format) were extracted from the PowerPoint and converted into TIFF-formatted files which are available upon request. To facilitate previewing, black and white PDF print surrogates are also included. Several publications highlighting the work of Dr. Margolis have also been included. Formerly collection number HT 0023.