This essay is part one of a two-part series on fetal remains and cultural politics. Find the second part here. […]
Medical Misogyny and Marketing Addiction: How the Nineteenth-Century Patent Medicine Industry Exploited Women
Today, nearly half of young American women report negative interactions with healthcare providers. Research suggests that these experiences contribute to […]
A New Film about Ida Craddock: An Interview with the Director
A new docu-drama about reproductive freedom and women’s rights, Sex Radical chronicles the life of Ida Craddock (1857-1902), a feminist, […]
The Strange Case of Henrietta Wiley: A Habitual Drunkard’s Journey Through Guardianship and the Asylum
In the 1880s, a court declared that Henrietta Wiley – a wealthy New York heiress and socialite – was a […]
Dying Before Germ Theory
As RFK questions germ theory, and measles ravages unvaccinated children, Americans need to know what is at risk. Americans died […]
Miasma Theory: A Primer
I recently received an unusual request—could I explain miasma theory to an NPR reporter? Miasma theory is suddenly newsworthy, roughly […]
Challenging the “Great Man” Narrative: Imagining the Voices of Women in the History of Sex and Reproduction
Historians of marginalized groups face a common problem: the people about whom they want to write often did not leave […]
Gone to China: Risk and Reward in the Travel Diaries of Martha Foster Crawford
Martha Foster Crawford thought that she would literally die. Hagiographical stories of missionary wives who had succumbed in the foreign […]
Mach 10 with Her Hair on Fire
Over the last 13 years, my mom went from a fast-moving and passionate high school teacher often described as “Mach […]
Mystery, Adventure, Gender, and Medicine
If Nursing Clio were a work of historical fiction set in England in the early 19th century, it would be […]
