Physician Malakai Veisamasama (seated) of Fiji invites Ni-Vanuatu to examine a hookworm sample, c. 1925
Malakula, Vanuatu
Photograph by Sylvester Maxwell Lambert

Public health physician Sylvester Maxwell Lambert, who worked for the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, traveled extensively between 1919 and 1939, visiting Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. His focus was to study hookworm disease in hopes of eradicating it. Lambert also advocated for training local students to become doctors, such as Malakai Veisamasama, seen here.

University of California, San Diego Archives, bb1639202z_1