Joseph Sonnabend Papers

Provenance

This collection was donated by Joseph Sonnabend on December 21, 2004.

Use Restrictions

No names may be published unless (1) the persons are publicly known as gay, or (2) their permission has been obtained, or (3) they are deceased. Restrictions are only in regards to publication; any researcher may view or copy any document in the collection. The collection contains patient files and may also contain other forms of protected health information as defined by HIPAA law. Researchers must redact any such information in consideration of the privacy of individuals as described above.

Scope and Content

This collection contains 5 feet of papers from Joseph Sonnabend’s personal collection. The collection spans across Sonnabend’s various pursuits and includes:
– Financial documents of Sonnabend’s private practice in the village.
– Personal financial records, including tax returns.
– A sample selection of patient files.
– Legal documents concerning an eviction suit brought against Sonnabend in 1983, and other legal cases represented by LAMBDA Legal.
– PWA (People with AIDS Coalition) board papers, memos, correspondence, and  meeting agendas and minutes.
– CRI/CRIA (Community Research Initiative on AIDS) business papers and correspondence, memos, meeting agendas and minutes, conference papers, grant proposals, and clinical study protocols.
– amfAR (American Foundation for AIDS Research) mission, meeting agendas and minutes, business correspondence, and grant proposals.
– ACTUP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) meeting minutes and presentation.
– Sonnabend’s manuscripts and completed articles on AIDS and related research, including clinical collaborations, and detailed presentations concerning the Multifactorial Model of AIDS he constructed.
– Bulk Sonnabend article reprints from 1964 to 1979 concerning interferon and other research topics.
– New York AIDS Network meeting minutes.
– “How to Have Sex in an Epidemic” brochure (1983)- original pamphlet created with Michael Callen, including reactions and correspondence.
– NYC Dept. of Health surveillance reports, meeting agendas and minutes.
– CDC weekly surveillance reports.
– AIDS Research Journal edited by Sonnabend- submissions and correspondence.
– Personal correspondence, speaking notes, and CVs of colleagues, employees, and coworkers.

In the folder list and elsewhere in this collection the abbreviation JAS is used interchangeably with the name Joseph A. Sonnabend.

History or Bio

Dr. Joseph A. Sonnabend was born in South Africa in 1933 and was a retired physician and AIDS researcher. During the 1960s and 1970s his medical research focused on Interferon and infectious disease, and later work, during the 1980s and 1990s, focused on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Sonnabend was renowned for his early work in community based-research concerning HIV/AIDS, and his theory of the disease’s development, known as the Multifactorial Model of AIDS. This model asserted that AIDS developed due to multiple factors, including the repeated exposure of individuals to other sexually transmitted diseases and semen. This model was disputed by some in the medical community and has since been proven wrong. The Multifactorial model also led Sonnabend to advocate for safe sex practices which were unfamiliar to the general public at the time, and his vocal promotion of safe sex proved controversial within the gay community.

During the early 1980s and 1990s Dr. Sonnabend ran an infectious disease clinic in Greenwich Village, at 49 West 12th Street, and treated hundreds of patients with HIV/AIDS and related diseases. Sonnabend also collaborated with many notable physicians and scientists, including Dr. Mathilde Krim, with whom he started the AIDS Medical Foundation, which later became amfAR- an organization dedicated to HIV/AIDS research and advocacy. Sonnabend also pioneered community based research with the creation of CRI, the Community Research Initiative, later known as CRIA. In collaboration with Michael Callen and Richard Berkowitz, Sonnabend also established PWA, People with AIDS Coalition, an organization dedicated to the promotion of promising treatments for HIV/AIDS.

Sonnabend died at the age of 88 in January, 2021, in London, England.

Folder List