The 27th General Hospital arrived at Hollandia, Dutch East Indies on July 22, 1944 at which time it was the furthest forward of all general hospitals in the Southwest Pacific Theater. It opened for patients on August 1, 1944 and operated until July 15, 1945 when the last patients were transferred to another hospital. During those months the hospital cared for 21,054 patients who were either local admissions from Army units in the area or battle casualties that had been evacuated to Hollandia from forward areas ranging from Biak to Luzon. The majority of the patients were American Army personnel. The commanding officer of the hospital was Lt. Colonel George L. Beatty.
The collection includes two bound volumes of reports plus 33 glass plate slides that are the same as photographs in volume 1. There are three quarterly reports in volume 1 that describe in detail the activities in the hospital. They also include a mixture of items: drawings, photographs of the camp, photographs of charts and drawings, maps of the camp, hand-drawn and hand-colored illustrations. Volume 2 contains surgical reports, papers written by staff doctors on various medical procedures or treatments, and 28 detailed autopsy reports.
Among the medical staff were doctors with affiliations at the University of Pittsburgh: Dr. Leonard M. Monheim, Dr. John J. McAleese, and Dr. James R. Watson. Watson may have compiled the volumes and donated them to the library.