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When Watchmen were Klansmen
Note: While history shouldn’t require a spoiler alert, this blog does contain some minor ones regarding the HBO series Watchmen.“You know...
How picturing the Boston Massacre matters
Maybe this painting looks familiar. A long row of red-coated soldiers. A cloud of gun smoke engulfing the street. Falling bodies.Detail of...
The most radical thing about Stonewall wasn’t the uprising
The Stonewall uprising began June 28, 1969, in response to a police raid at The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York, and has since...
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COVID-19, police violence, and the historical thread that binds them: Structural racism as a public health issue
IntroductionOur political and legal systems are inextricably intertwined with and fueled by structural racism. This legacy predates the...
Black Life in Two Pandemics: Histories of Violence
George Floyd’s Memorial Day 2020 killing by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin shook the nation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the...
Racism is a public health crisis
Racism has been a public health emergency in America for over 400 years. We can call it a crisis or disaster or something else entirely....
Science and political protest: A Q&A with Dr. Florence Haseltine
In March 1995, Ladies Home Journal named Dr. Florence Haseltine one of the ten most important women in medicine. Haseltine, currently...
How Evelyn Lauder took on breast cancer at the cosmetics counter
They had just arrived in a foreign country and the small girl’s mother was sent away. Ernest and Mimi Hausner fled their home in...
Happy 50th anniversary of no mumps!
This year we celebrate 50 years of mumps vaccination in America, helping to make chipmunk cheeks and swollen testicles a thing of our...
How black Philadelphians fought for soldiers during World War I
Suffering from "shell shock and a general breakdown," Charles Mackall and James Randall arrived in Philadelphia in September 1918 from...
Grace under pressure
On December 7, 1941, two days before her 35th birthday, Grace Murray Hopper, an associate professor of mathematics at Vassar College, was...
Total eclipse of the sun, partial eclipse of inequality
"It was now quick work," Maria Mitchell noted. "As the last rays of sunlight disappeared, the corona burst out all around the sun, so...
The crop of the 21st century
"Information is your new crop!" proclaimed John Deere's brochure, announcing the company's newly launched GreenStar Precision Farming...
Souvenirs of science
I collect souvenirs, as do many friends and family members. Most of these souvenirs have scant monetary value, but we treasure them as...
The dueling designs for the modern x-ray tube in World War I
Twenty years before the start of World War I, a new "light" that could pass through a human body revealing its underlying structures caused...
Ordinary objects or incredible inventions?
According to a recent report by Mintel, a marketing research agency, few millennials use bar soap. Don't be alarmed, though. They...
Sneaky 1960s rabies prevention inventions
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. Antibody-based tests, vaccines, and drugs have...
Healthy hogs for a healthy nation
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. This is the fourth post in our Antibodies Week...
Plague hits Mouse Town, USA!
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. Antibody-based tests, vaccines, and drugs have...
An-tee-bodies: T-shirts in celebration of the antibody
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. Antibody-based tests, vaccines, and drugs have...
Antibodies are a girl's best friend
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. Antibody-based tests, vaccines, and drugs have...
Donkeys, lard, and a telescope: eclipse exploration in 1878 and 1900
[[{"fid":"23607","view_mode":"large","fields":{"format":"large","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Photograph of...
Dotchin or "opium scale"—What's in a name?
Working with museum collections, I am often reminded that the names we attach to objects can reflect powerful social and political forces....
Move aside, the doctor is driving through!
While walking alongside a street or through a parking lot, do you ever notice the different signs adorning cars? Bumper stickers are the...
Weighing the baby
Parents today proudly announce the weight of each new child, along with the baby's height, name, and sex. When did the practice of weighing...
When real patriots got Tetanus
"The coming stupendous holocaust, caused by the sky-rocket, the giant fire cracker and the toy pistol, that leaves an annual trail of...
Well, that sucks…or does it?
Vacuum technology is fascinating to me. Unfortunately for my house, I'm talking about a vacuum defined by the absence of matter, not the...
George Washington weighs his hogs
George Washington is seldom seen as a man of science. But, like others who lived during the Enlightenment, he used scientific ideas,...
My ultrasound used to look like what?
Imagine walking into your doctor's office for your diagnostic ultrasound for ovarian screening, rounding the corner to the procedure...
Macabre school supplies: 19th century dissection sets
A 19th-century medical student brought to school a number of things, including scientific texts and a hope to one day relieve the suffering...
This Galentine's Day blog post is for you. You poetic, noble land-mermaid.
On February 13, women everywhere (we hope!) will be gathering together to celebrate Galentine's Day. First introduced in 2010 by character...
The power of the poppy: Exploring opium through "The Wizard of Oz"
"And now my beauties, something with poison in it I think, with poison in it, but attractive to the eye and soothing to the smell . . ....
Heart valves galore, to Tin Man's delight
In The Wizard of Oz, Tin Man longs for a heart. That's a problem Manuel "Manny" Villafaña has rarely had—he has collected pieces of many...
Explore our historic weights and balances for World Standards Day
When you pay for a pound of chocolates, how do you know if you get a pound, no more and no less? Do you rely on the goodness of the market...
Pork, politics, and public health
I dare not eat / A dead pig's meat / Though not of creed of Moses /For, oh, I fear / From what I hear, / That horrid trichinosis—...
The science of mounting glass
Imagine you're setting a table with your finest glassware, and finding the best placement for each fragile and meaningful piece. Now...
Americans who joined the World War before their country did
April 6, 2016, marks the 99th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War I. Although the country would not be drawn into combat until...
Kids pitched in to defeat disease and advance medical research
Giving blood, getting a flu shot, raising money for a cure—plenty of Americans participate every day to help secure the health...
Standing up against disease together—or not
Eliminating or lowering rates of communicable disease often requires that we participate together in the battle against infectious disease...
Combating infectious disease and slaying the rubella dragon, 1969-1972
Metaphors of war and combat are almost impossible to avoid when describing humankind's struggle to control infectious disease. The war may...
Next on your radio dial, 15 minutes of healthy talk
At the first sign of symptoms, many people turn to the Internet for health advice. Early listeners to radio could turn their dials and...
Reality plus drama equals "EMERGENCY!"
The pre-reality television show EMERGENCY! premiered in January 1972. Health- and medical-themed programs such as the radio and...
Anti-vaccination in America
In 1926 seven-year-old Belema Siegfried was turned away from school. The reason? Her parents had refused to submit paperwork proving that...
12 kids who helped a doubting public accept the smallpox vaccine
Each year in August, National Immunization Awareness Month provides an opportunity to highlight the value of immunization across the...
The peace gun
At the height of the Cold War, Soviet and American scientists and physicians united to call for a new and very different war—one on...
"Heroes Come with Empty Sleeves"
Curator Dr. Katherine Ott invited students in Dr. Samuel J. Redman's Museum/Historic Site Interpretation Seminar to explore the museum's...
Live blog: #DisabilityStories
Over on Twitter, a lot of people are engaged in #DisabilityStories, an international conversation about disability art, culture,...
Smashing barriers to access: Disability activism and curb cuts
Curator Dr. Katherine Ott invited students in Dr. Samuel J. Redman's Museum/Historic Site Interpretation Seminar to explore the museum's...
From "Invalid Corps" to full active duty: America's disabled soldiers return to war
Curator Dr. Katherine Ott invited students in Dr. Samuel J. Redman's Museum/Historic Site Interpretation Seminar to explore the museum's...
8 ways in which the Americans with Disabilities Act changed everyone's lives
Curator Dr. Katherine Ott invited students in Dr. Samuel J. Redman's Museum/Historic Site Interpretation Seminar to explore the museum's...
Please touch the objects: Tactile models and alternative approaches to curation
Curator Dr. Katherine Ott invited students in Dr. Samuel J. Redman's Museum/Historic Site Interpretation Seminar to explore the museum's...
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