ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The Making and Metamorphosis of the Modern Health Crusader

• In Event: Findings in Digital Humanities 2: Modern

English Abstract

When examined through a truly interdisciplinary and investigative gaze, the public health posters of the early 20th Century provide an exciting new perspective to the history of medicine, getting to the crux of bigger questions regarding our understanding of health, whilst reuniting the clinical image of medicine today with an expansive history of art, science and philosophy, From references to medieval morality through the works of Dante to the impact and influences of the sociology-political landscape of war, the phenomena of the interwar health posters shows an evolution of imagery wherein nurses become knights and calls to protect innocence and pastoral bliss move towards the protection and prevention against threat, all in the name of the ‘Modern Health Crusade’ against Tuberculosis. Posters from across the UK, USA and Europe all demonstrate the same patterns, yet do so at different rate and with techniques and inspiration embodied in national identity and history. This paper will closely examine this evolution through a small selection of posters, combining methods from art history, literary criticism, medicine and the digital humanities, shifting our perspective to see that medical ephemera is not merely an embellishment to history, but a living embodiment of history in its own right.

Author

• Charlotte Louise White, Newcastle University