On September 12, 1846, a poet-prince married a “rather plain, thin, faded, hysterical woman [who] was loved for herself as […]
Who is Dead?
The February 5, 2018 New Yorker carried a story of Jahi McMath and her family. In 2013, McMath went into […]
Golden Girls, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and the Legacies of Hysteria
On September 23, 1989, the fifth season of Golden Girls opened with a two-episode arc entitled “Sick and Tired.”1 The […]
Between War and Water: Saratoga Springs and Veteran Health after the First World War
One month and eight days before world leaders signed the Armistice to end the First World War, New York Governor […]
Whose Milk? Changing US Attitudes toward Maternal Breastfeeding
In the spring of 2018, government delegates from around the world gathered in Geneva, Switzerland for the World Health Assembly […]
When Legs and Arms Won: The Culture of Dissection and the Role of the Camera at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania
In Fall 1906, three weeks into their freshman year, Elizabeth Cisney-Smith and her classmates were, as she wrote, “initiated” to […]
Land-Grant Eugenics: Spreading an Idea in Rural America
Eugenics as an explicit social program went mostly out of favor in the United States after the Second World War, […]
“What Must That Sound Like?”: The Trauma of Family Separation
On June 22, 2018, US Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California’s 33rd District, stood on the floor of the […]
A Kick for a Bite; Or, Review Upon Review Upon Ten Babies on the Floor
On April 18, 2018, the United States Senate voted unanimously that both male and female senators could bring infants up […]
![Illustration shows Uncle Sam as the "Pied Piper" playing a pipe labeled "Lax Immigration Laws" and leading a horde of rats labeled "Jail Bird, Murderer, Thief, Criminal, Crook, Kidnapper, Incendiary, Assassin, Convict, Bandit, Fire Brand, White Slaver, [and] Degenerate", and some carry signs that read "Black Hand" showing a black handprint. In the background, rulers from "France, Russia, Germany, Italy, Hungary/Austria, Turkey, [and] Greece", along with citizens of these countries, are cheering the fleeing rats.](https://i0.wp.com/nursingclio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/anti-immigration-1909-political-cartoon_loc.jpg?fit=640%2C378&ssl=1)
From Mooktie to Juan: The Eugenic Origins of the “Defective Immigrant”
On a Monday in November 1905, a “little deaf and dumb … 10-year old Eurasian girl” called Mooktie Wood arrived […]
