Primary Sources: Plagues, Epidemics, & Pandemics: AIDS

Smiling and lugging his books in a school gym bag, Ryan White, a 14-year-old AIDS sufferer, reported for the start of eighth-grade classes today, after parents who opposed his return dropped their battle because of mounting legal costs.

"A compilation of local and national news reports and special programs relating to the AIDS crisis, from the 1980s and 90s."

"The posters represented here were given to the River Campus Libraries’ Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Dr. Edward C. Atwater beginning in 2007. The over 8,000 AIDS education posters in the collection document efforts to educate and inform the people of over 100 countries in over 60 languages, from 1982 to the present. The collection has been a catalyst for numerous student projects by University of Rochester graduate and undergraduate students, as well as exhibitions, scholarly research, and public programming. AIDS touches individuals of all ages. Our collection includes posters aimed towards educating young children, the elderly, and everyone in between, about HIV/AIDS prevention, risks, social advocacy, and compassion for those affected. Posters, as an art form and as a medium of communication, are graphic. As long as HIV/AIDS continues to affect people of all ages around the world, the purposes for which these posters were originally created will continue to be relevant. Dr. Atwater’s gift also includes extensive ephemera and other materials, as well as documentation about how he acquired items for the collection."

"Aimed at capturing factual, contextual, and personal information that will enhance the written record, the AIDS Oral History Projects document the experience of physicians, nurses, and scientists who played key roles in the early years of the AIDS epidemic."

"Over 3000 digitised public health posters relating to AIDS, from 99 countries, are freely available to view and download."

"Searchable database of digitized AIDS posters from 44 countries. Demonstrates the efforts taken by various countries to promote AIDS awareness and modify risk behaviors. The physical collection was originally acquired by the History and Special Collections division of the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library in 2005, and has been expanded through later acquisitions."

"Our mission is to prevent the spread of HIV and to help those affected by making all the world's HIV/AIDS prevention education videos in all the world's languages available for free."

"This primary source set uses documents, photographs, posters, and other promotional materials to tell the story of ACT UP during the AIDS Crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s."

"The HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to be one of the most significant public health crises in the world. When AIDS emerged in San Francisco in the early 1980s, the effects on the gay community were devastating. In the face of federal government apathy, health workers, local activists, and community organizers demanded action and worked to provide care and support to their friends, lovers, and family members. The sources selected here will introduce you to the diverse responses and strategies employed in the first 20 years of the epidemic."

"The Global Health Chronicles is a collection of materials on public health efforts to prevent, control and eradicate global disease. A collaboration between the David J. Sencer CDC Museum at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Emory University, the site was designed for a range of users, from casual readers to serious researchers. Users may access new and rarely-seen materials through this searchable database."

"Marcia Quackenbush was a social worker in San Francisco in the early 1980s and wrote one of the early textbooks for K-12 teachers, Teaching AIDS. Interviewer John O'Keefe is a guest assistant curator of the showcase display “HIV and AIDS 30 Years Ago” and is finishing a doctorate in American Studies at The George Washington University."

Containing both primary and secondary materials, "this Web site features 7,349 digital objects. Journal articles were not digitized but users can link dynamically to the articles if their library subscribes to the journal. Users should also be aware that due to copyright restrictions, not all items listed in the finding aid will be available online." Materials were donated to the University of Michigan Library by "noted Science writer Jon Cohen" and are "largely focused on AIDS vaccine research."

"This online collection presents digitized images of the AIDS Memorial Quilt panel maker files housed in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The panel maker files contain more than 150,000 mementos and ephemera submitted by Quilt panel makers to the NAMES Project and the National AIDS Memorial, which memorializes victims of HIV/AIDS. Conceived by Cleve Jones and friends in response to the AIDS epidemic unfolding in San Francisco, California, it was first displayed on the National Mall on October 11, 1987 at the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The Quilt's impact was immediate and helped transform discussions about HIV/AIDS victims, treatment, prevention, prejudice, and taboos. Since 1987 the Quilt has grown to nearly 50,000 panels memorializing 110,000 individuals - the largest piece of community folk art ever created - and has traveled all over the world."

"The Lone Star Ride Fighting AIDS was an event that took place in Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas in September to raise funds for AIDS awareness, services, and research from 2001 through 2013. The collection includes documents, photographs, and videos related to the documentation and promotion of the Lone Star Ride. "

"heibaud and her colleagues, fearful about contracting or spreading the disease, were not given adequate information or training on how to protect themselves or their patients. When she discovered safety methods and technology that were not available at her hospital, Theibaud organized health workers to demand access to new safety techniques. Her campaign worked, winning workers new safety training and a permanent monitoring committee."

Includes various collections related to the history of medicine worldwide.

"...Among the many activist groups that worked to archive this history was the International Gay Information Center (IGIC), which grew out of the History Committee of GAA. The IGIC archives operated as a community-based repository until 1988, when the organization's directors gave the collection to The New York Public Library. The IGIC archives, along with other archives and collections subsequently donated to the Library, such as the Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay History Papers and Photographs, comprehensively document the gay and lesbian civil rights struggles in New York since the 1950s and have made NYPL one of the most important archives of LGBT history in the United States."

"These oral history interviews were recorded as part of The oH Project: Oral Histories of HIV/AIDS in Houston, Harris County, and Southeast Texas. Founding partners of the project include Legacy Community Health, Montrose Center, and the Woodson Research Center, Rice University. It is the policy of The oH Project to redact the names of third parties in reference to their HIV / AIDS status or sexual orientation unless The oH Project has written consent from the third party to be named or proof that the person has shared his or her HIV / AIDS status and/or sexual orientation in a public record."

"The AIDS Epidemic in San Francisco oral history project was initiated by virologists David and Evelyne Lennette, whose laboratory in 1981 began receiving specimens for testing from early San Francisco AIDS patients. The intention of this project was to document events of 1981-84 in the early history of the AIDS epidemic, focusing on how decisions were made on biomedical, public health, and social and political issues pertaining to AIDS.

The interviews were conducted by Sally Smith Hughes between 1992 and 1996."

"The Ryan White collection at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis formed the basis for the Museum’s most compelling permanent exhibit, The Power of Children, which tells the powerful stories and impact made by three extraordinary children: Ryan White, Anne Frank, and Ruby Bridges. The lives of these youth inform an array of Power of Children programs and events popular with families, students, and educators who visit the Museum. A valuable primary source subgroup of this collection, currently limited in usage, is Ryan’s compilation of letters that were written to him as a child in response to his internationally-known efforts to educate the public about HIV/AIDS. To fully leverage this resource and build upon one of its most well-known experiences, the Museum partnered with the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Scholarship to digitize and preserve the letter collection online. This project will serve as a step in bringing an array of documents and objects related to Ryan’s life to audiences through a publicly accessible, online archive."

"The digital collection available here contains letters, speeches, poetry, and memoirs predominately dated 1971-1990 written by mother and son, Jean and Bill Nelson. The corresponding physical collection is housed in the University of North Texas Special Collections."

"Gay advocacy and community-based organizations began providing services and pressuring government to increase funding for finding a cure and helping victims. As two representatives of AIDS health services organizations stated in the following 1987 testimony to Congress, AIDS spread in disproportionately high numbers throughout U.S. minority and disadvantaged communities. They advocated increased federal funding for prevention efforts targeted at minority communities and administered by community-based organizations. Despite such efforts, the number of minority AIDS cases continued to rise sharply, and by 1996, African Americans accounted for a higher percentage of reported adult cases of AIDS (41%) than did whites. "

"In the following 1983 testimony before a congressional committee, three representatives of social service organizations sharply criticized the Reagan administration’s limited response to the AIDS crisis, advocated increased federal funding, and warned that AIDS was a societal “time bomb” likely to have grave consequences beyond the gay community. In 1995 AIDS became the leading cause of death for Americans aged 25 to 44. By mid-2002, while the annual rate of new HIV cases dropped in the U.S. to 40,000 (from a 1980s high of 150,000), more than 20 million people worldwide had died from the disease, and 40 million were living with HIV. "

"As the severity of the AIDS epidemic increased during the mid-1980s, the inadequacy of AIDS education and treatment came under assault from activists, many of whom were themselves infected with the disease. Michael Yantsos, who became infected with AIDS in prison in 1983, was one of those who spoke out when conditions at Rikers Island Prison Hospital in New York City became unbearable. In 1986, as prisoners were dying at the rate of one every two weeks from AIDS, Yantsos and his fellow inmates went on hunger strike to publicize the unsanitary conditions in the prison’s AIDS ward, which included leaks, rodents, insects, and inadequate food and medical attention. The prisoners’ efforts succeeding in publicizing the issue and winning some reforms in the ward’s conditions. "

"When AIDS struck the gay community during the early 1980’s, many who had not previously consider themselves activists, like Bruce Priebe, became politically active. Militancy, political action, and demands for rights and recognition within the gay and lesbian community had been building throughout the post-war period. While many homosexual men and women first expressed their sexuality during World War II, a period of relative, albeit silent, tolerance, the movement for gay rights became more assertive following the 1969 Stonewall Riot, when New York City police raided a gay club. The burst of community health activism in response to the AIDS epidemic built on these earlier expressions of “gay pride” and activism. "

"Michael Yantsos contracted AIDS through intravenous drug use while in prison in 1983. Yantsos was one of thousands who became infected before information about the disease or adequate treatment was available. As a result, Yantsos, like most Americans, knew next to nothing about the disease when AIDS struck during the early 1980’s. Many associated the disease with gay men, who were its first victims, but the epidemic soon spread to other populations – first to intravenous drug users, and then to heterosexuals. Reagan era cuts in drug treatment programs and the “war” on drugs that pushed thousands of addicts into prison also contributed to the disease’s spread. "

"In the following 1983 testimony before a congressional committee, three AIDS patients described their personal experiences during the early years of the disease. "