Primary Sources: The Great Depression and the 1930s: Science, Medicine & Tech

American Journal of Public Health 1912-27
American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health 1928-1970
American Journal of Public Health 1971-

"The records chronicle the American Social Health (originally "Hygiene") Association's efforts to control and prevent venereal disease, prostitution, and drug addiction through educational, legal, and medical measures. The records reflect considerable interaction with the armed forces, particularly during periods of war or full mobilization. Field reports document conditions in individual cities and the influence of housing, recreation, sanitation, and other factors on vice and public health. Financial sections reflect the development of federated fund-raising and its impact on a national association's program. Activities of longtime executives and staff members William Snow, C. Walter Clarke, Bascom Johnson, and Paul Kinsie are extensively documented. Also included are extensive files of printed materials on social hygiene produced by ASHA."

"Disability is an aspect of human experience that crosses all boundaries of race, class and gender, and it leaves a trail in all societies, everywhere. Our Collections aim to reveal the rich possibilities and directions disability history offers as a means to study our collective human experience."

"In the Archive you will see numerous reports, articles, charts, and pedigrees that were considered scientific "facts" in their day. It is important to remind yourself that the vast majority of eugenics work has been completely discredited. In the final analysis, the eugenic description of human life reflected political and social prejudices, rather than scientific facts."

"The History of Vaccines is an award-winning informational, educational website created by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, one of the oldest medical societies in the United States." The site includes an image gallery with images ranging from the pre-1700s to the present.

"...is a core electronic collection of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines. Titles published between 1850 and 1950 were selected and ranked by teams of scholars for their great historical importance. The first phase of this project focused on books published between 1850 and 1925 and a small number of journals. Future phases of the project will include books published between 1926 and 1950, as well as additional journals. The full text of these materials, as well as bibliographies and essays on the wide array of subjects relating to Home Economics, are all freely accessible on this site. This is the first time a collection of this scale and scope has been made available." Cornell University

Digital Collections provides access to the National Library of Medicine's distinctive digital content in the areas of biomedicine, health care and the history of medicine. Our unique digital collections are freely available for download worldwide and in the public domain unless otherwise indicated.

National Foundation Approves $161,350 Grant to Tuskegee Institute for Purpose

"In 1938, the US Department of Labor released this film aimed at preventing the occupational disease of silicosis. It was produced in response to the national outcry over the death of more than 500 workers at Union Carbide's Hawks Nest Tunnel project near Gauley Bridge West Virginia in the early 1930s."

"An archive of 14 million documents created by tobacco companies about their advertising, manufacturing, marketing, scientific research and political activities, hosted by the UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management. "

" "Posters have been a powerful force in shaping public opinion because propagandists have long known that visual impressions are extremely strong. People may forget a newspaper article but most remember a picture. A pamphlet or a newspaper can be thrown away, unread; the radio or television turned off; films or political meetings not attended. But everyone at some time or other notices messages when walking or driving, or sees posters on bulletin boards in offices, hospitals, clinics or pharmacies. The main objective of posters, as with other communications media is to influence attitudes, to sell a product or service or to change behavior patterns. Public health posters are clearly in the third category, their purpose being to alter the consciousness of the public to bring about an improvement in health practices."

-- William H. Helfand, To Your Health: An Exhibition of Posters for Contemporary Public Health Issues, National Library of Medicine "

"This collection consists of correspondence, scrapbooks, clippings, college records, images, diaries, publications and ephemera documenting the history of women physicians beginning with the first medical school for women, Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP). "

"Silicosis, a deadly lung disease caused when workers inhale fine particles of silica dust (found in sand, quartz, and granite), became a national cause célèbre during the Great Depression when it was recognized as a significant disease among lead, zinc, and silver miners, sandblasters, and foundry and tunnel workers. While silicosis was a crisis for the federal government, business, and insurance companies as well as labor organizations, its most devastating effects were on the workers who contracted the disease and the families and communities who watched previously healthy men waste away and die. The lasting impact that the silicosis “plague” had on individual workers’ lives in the 1930s is evident here in Laurie Mercier’s 1981 interview with Helen Raymond, who opened a tavern that catered to miners in Virginia City, Montana, in 1934."