History of Medicine

Infectious Diseases

This is a brief guide to approaching the History of Medicine at Boston College with a focus on major access points for scholarly material and then focus on digital collections of primary sources.

Page under Construction

This page is currently under construction and far from complete. If you notice broken links or have suggestions, please write the subject liaison e-mail.

What's on This Page by Disease

Broad Digital Collections

JSTOR Images This link opens in a new window
A database of more than 1.3 million digital images. It covers many time periods and cultures and represent architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, etc. Users are required to create a personal account to access this database off campus.
Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
Aggregates digital collections from around the U.S. and offers excellent tools to discover and explore them. Contributing institutions provide access to photographs, government documents, newspaper clippings, books, and other forms of ephemera. Focuses on 17th to 21st centuries.

Gallica
Interface in English and French (and other major, European languages). Majority of the content in French.
France's fantastic digital library from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Digitized periodicals, images, recordings, and more. Covers two millenia with particular strength from 1500 to the present.
Open Access.

HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
A digital repository for the nation's great research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the digitized book and serial collections of major universities and other partner institutions, a significant portion of which is in the public domain and available full text.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Digitized primary sources from the Library of Congress, includes manuscripts, books, photos, maps, audio recordings, and more!

World Digital Library This link opens in a new window
The World Digital Library is a Library of Congress project sponsored by UNESCO. Items in this digital library, including books, manuscripts, photographs, maps and sound recordings, are individually described and searchable in seven languages. Most countries and regions around the world are represented.

Broad Digital Collections for Disease

Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics
This online collection offers important historical perspectives on the science and public policy of epidemiology today and contributes to the understanding of the global, social–history, and public–policy implications of diseases.
Global Health Chronicles
Includes photographs, oral histories, and related media on malaria, small pox, guinea worm, polio, AIDs, and ebola. Focused on the 20th and 21st centuries.
more...less...
The Global Health Chronicles, a collaboration between the David J. Sencer CDC Museum at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship.
The History of Vaccines
Provides a living, changing chronicle of the compelling history of vaccination, from pre-Jennerian variolation practices, to the defeat of polio in the Western Hemisphere, to cutting-edge approaches to novel vaccines and vaccine delivery. The site aims to increase public knowledge and understanding of the ways in which vaccines, toxoids, and passive immunization work, how they have been developed, and the role they have played in the improvement of human health.
more...less...
Host: College of Physicians of Philadelphia
National Library of Medicine's History of Medicine Division
Collects, preserves, makes available, and interprets for diverse audiences one of the world's richest collections of historical material related to human health and disease.
Science Museum: Epidemics
A series of curated online exhibits looking at the bubonic plague, smallpox, and polio.
Vernon McKay Photographs (NorthWestern)
A broad array of photographs predominately related to disease in Nigeria mostly from the 20th century.
Wellcome Library Digital Collections
The Library's digital collections cover a wide variety of topics, including asylums, food, sex and sexual health, genetics, public health and war.
Published books, pamphlets, archives, posters, photographs, and film and sound recordings are completely free to view.
more...less...
Digitised materials are released under a variety of Creative Commons non-commercial, attribution and Public Domain licenses.
WHO Historical Collection
The Rare Book Collection consists largely of documentation acquired by the OIHP on epidemics included in the International Sanitary Conventions such as: plague, cholera and yellow fever. Materials covering smallpox, malaria and other diseases prevalent at the beginning of the 20th century, are also included. Our oldest book on plague dates from 1507.

Centers on Infectious Diseases

For descriptions and discussions of health and medicine in the contemporary world, try visiting the following organization's websites:

Disease: AIDS/HIV

HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is the virus that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS if not treated. The CDC provides a description and recommendations for prevention on their website.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome at the LOC
The LOC has digitized and provided more than 800 sources on the AIDS crisis, focusing on legislation, periodicals, and books from the 20th and 21st centuries.
AIDS History Project Ephemera Collection
Selections from the AIDS History Project Ephemera Collection, including posters and pamphlets related to the medical and/or social aspects of AIDS and HIV, with a focus on prevention and on addressing misconceptions about the virus and disease. Call number: MSS 2000-31
more...less...
Institution: UC San Francisco, Library, Special Collections
AIDS posters
Over 3000 digitised public health posters relating to AIDS, from 99 countries through the Wellcome Library Digital Collections.
HIV/AIDS at the US National Library of Medicine
Facsimiles of more than 1,200 posters, texts, photographs, and more from the 20th and 21st centuries.
National Commission on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Records
Documents produced between 1983-1994 including briefing books, hearing and meeting transcripts, reports, and press clippings document the activities of the National Commission on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Materials cover all but the last year of the Commission's existence. The majority of the collection consists of briefing books, and hearing and meeting transcripts of the National Commission.
Posters from the Herskovits Library: AIDS
These posters represent a sampling (approximately 130) posters about AIDS from Northwesterns' Africana posters housed at the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies.

Disease: Cholera

Cholera is caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. For more information, check out the CDC's website.

Cholera and the LOC
The Library of Congress has made more than 3,000 books, periodicals, images, and bills of mortality pertaining to the history and study of tuberculosis online. Focuses on the 19th to the 20st centuries.
Cholera in 19th Century New York
Cholera was among the most virulent infectious diseases to strike nineteenth-century New York. Online curated exhibit with essays and primary sources.
Cholera in the HathiTrust Digital Library
More than 450 full facsimiles (mostly books, some conference proceedings and statistics) of texts relating to Cholera from across the 19th and 20th centuries.
Cholera on Calisphere
More than 60 facsimiles--mostly images--from the late 19th and 20th centuries relating to Cholera in the US and Japan.
Cholera Online, 1817 to 1900 (NIH)
More than 500 reports and publications from the US National Library of Medicine.
Cholera [Wellcome Library]
More than a hundred digitized sources (text and A/V) relating to Cholera in three languages (English, French, and Spanish) from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Filth and Fever (British Library)
Curated digital facsimiles and essays on public health in Britain during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Disease: Influenza (The Flu)

Influenza (flu) is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. The CDC provides a description and recommendations for prevention on their website.

1918 Pandemic Influenza Survivors Share Their Stories in Alabama
Ann Brantley, Hazard Vulnerability Analysis Nurse Coordinator of the Center for Emergency Preparedness, interviewed several pandemic influenza survivors for a historical perspective on this devastating event in world history.
The Deadly Virus: The Influenza Epidemic from 1918
Curated documents from the US National Archives.
Influenza at HathiTrust
More than 140 documents online about influenza in the 20th century.
Influenza Encyclopedia: 50 Cities and their Stories
These pages contain the stories of the places, the people, and the organizations that battled the American influenza epidemic of 1918-1919.
Influenza on Calisphere
More than 100 digital facsimiles--mostly photographs and newspapers--on the flu from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Pandemic Influenza Storybook (CDC)
A curated selection of documents (text and images) hosted by the CDC about the flu in the 20th century.
WSU Flu Epidemic of 1918
The 1918 Influenza had a dramatic impact on WSU and Pullman. As part of military build-up for World War I, the WSU campus had swelled with 1,325 Student Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.) cadets. This collection includes more than 120 documents on the issue.

Disease: The Plague (Black Death)

The Latin name for bacteria associated with the Black Death is bacterium Yersinia pestis. The CDC provides a description of what The Plague is on their website.

Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics
This online collection offers important historical perspectives on the science and public policy of epidemiology today and contributes to the understanding of the global, social–history, and public–policy implications of diseases.
Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine
the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) collection of Islamic medical manuscripts, "one of the three greatest in the world," "The illustrated, online catalog with over 330 texts, includes essays on the featured texts accompanied by thumbnail images, physical descriptions, provenance, and additional resources. Also on-site are an introduction to Medieval Islam and bibliographies." Scout Report, June 9, 2000.
The Plague Book
"Orders thought Meete ..." was published under the auspices of Elizabeth I during an outbreak of the plague in England and presents a fascinating look at public health, epidemiology, and illness in the late sixteenth century. The book contains instructions for the Queen’s emissaries in identifying towns struck by plague and then directs them in how to proceed with taxation, issues related to quarantine, and the handling of the clothing and bodies of those who died. It concludes with recipes for preparing medicines that would, purportedly, prevent the plague or cure it if already contracted.
more...less...
Transcribed at the University of Virginia.
WHO Historical Collection
The Rare Book Collection consists largely of documentation acquired by the OIHP on epidemics included in the International Sanitary Conventions such as: plague, cholera and yellow fever. Materials covering smallpox, malaria and other diseases prevalent at the beginning of the 20th century, are also included. Our oldest book on plague dates from 1507.

The Black Death by Rosemary Horrox
Call Number: Medieval Sources Online
Publication Date: 1994
Focused on 14th century Europe (emphasis on England), includes narrative accounts as well as religious and scientific responses.

La peste noire [The Black Plague] in Gallica
La peste noire
Sur Gallica, découvrez la peste noire, ou mort noire, à travers un choix d’ouvrages sur son histoire, depuis le Moyen Age, et sa propagation, notamment à Marseille à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Le blog de Gallica a consacré un billet aux grandes épidémies en France.

Disease: Polio

Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus. The CDC provides a description and recommendations for prevention on their website.

Polio in the US
Polio OR Poliomyelitis in HathiTrust
More than 75 documents in HathiTrust on polio from the 20th century.
Disability History Museum
Digital facsimiles of documents across the 20th century.
FDR and Polio
Online exhibit from the FDR Library.

Disease: Tuberculosis (TB)

Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The CDC provides a description and recommendations for prevention on their website.

Tuberculosis and the LOC
The Library of Congress has made more than 4,000 books, periodicals, images, and videos pertaining to the history and study of tuberculosis online. Focuses on the 19th to the 21st centuries.
Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics
This online collection offers important historical perspectives on the science and public policy of epidemiology today and contributes to the understanding of the global, social–history, and public–policy implications of diseases.
Tuberculose at the National Library of the Netherlands
Facsimiles of ephemera, posters, and photographs relating to Tuberculosis in the 20th century.
Tuberculosis in Hathi Trust
More than 1,400 full text documents, predominately in English, ranging from the 18th to the 21st centuries. Includes government reports (including the National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health) as well as institutional documents (such as the National Tuberculosis Association).

Disease: Typhus

Epidemic typhus, also called louse-borne typhus, is an uncommon disease caused by a bacteria called Rickettsia prowazekii. The CDC provides a description and recommendations for prevention on their website.

Typhus at the LOC
The Library of Congress has provided more than 1,000 documents (newspaper articles, books, images, and periodicals) relating to the history of typhus from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Typhus at the National Library of the Netherlands
More than 50 results, mostly photographs, from the early 20th century.
Typhus in HathiTrust
More than 60 documents, mostly in English and German, from the 18th to the 20th centuries relating to the study of Typhus.

Disease: Yellow Fever

The CDC provides a description and recommendations for prevention on their website.

Politics of Yellow Fever in Alexander Hamilton's America
Yellow fever ravaged Philadelphia in 1793. The deadly disease touched nearly everyone in the city: young and old, white and African American, wealthy and poor, religious and secular.
Yellow Fever in Hathi Trust
More than 175 documents, mostly in English, about Yellow Fever predominately from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Yellow Fever in the US
History of Vaccines' photographs and documents on yellow fever.

Disease: Zika

Zika is spread mostly by the bite of an infected species mosquito (Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus). The CDC provides a description and recommendations for prevention on their website.

Zika Virus in Europeana
Small collection, partly from the EU, about Zika.
Zika at the LOC
Access to US legislation, reports, and other access points with information about the virus.

Sources: News in Film, Magazines, and Papers

ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Search scanned images of newspapers and other periodicals, including ads, as far back as the mid-19th century.

For historical newspapers and television, visit BC Libraries' Historical News page.

Databases A-Z

For Additional Help

For additional recommendations, contact your History Liaison, Erin, at erinkate.scheopner@bc.edu or schedule an appointment.

O'Neill Library

Bapst Library

Burns Library

Educational Resource Center

Law Library

Social Work Library

Theology & Ministry Library

O'Connor Library

Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

History of Medicine

Infectious Diseases

Page under Construction

What's on This Page by Disease

Broad Digital Collections

Broad Digital Collections for Disease

Centers on Infectious Diseases

Disease: AIDS/HIV

Disease: Cholera

Disease: Influenza (The Flu)

Disease: The Plague (Black Death)

Disease: Polio

Disease: Tuberculosis (TB)

Disease: Typhus

Disease: Yellow Fever

Disease: Zika

Sources: News in Film, Magazines, and Papers

For Additional Help