Health and Medicine on Display

by Brown, Julie K.

• ISBN13: 9780262026574
• ISBN10: 0262026570
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-09-30
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

International expositions, with their massive assembling of exhibits and audiences, were the media events of their time. In transmitting a new culture of visibility that merged information, entertainment, and commerce, they provided a unique opportunity for the public to become aware of various social and technological advances. With Health and Medicine on Display,Julie Brown offers the first book-length examination of how international expositions, through their exhibits and infrastructures, sought to demonstrate innovations in applied health and medical practice. Brown investigates not only how exhibits translated health and medical information into visual form but also how exposition sites in urban settings (an exposition was "a city within a city" sometimes in conflict with municipal authorities) provided emergency medical treatment, access to safe water, and protection against infectious diseases. Brown looks at four expositions held in Philadelphia, Chicago, Buffalo, and St. Louis between 1876 and 1904, spanning the Gilded Age and the early reform years of the Progressive Era. She describes the 1904 St. Louis exposition in particular detail, looking closely at the sites and services as well as selected exhibits (including working model playground, live X-ray demonstrations, and a rescue film by the U.S. Navy). Many carefully researched illustrations, most never before published (with supplementary images available on the MIT Press website), vividly demonstrate the role that these exhibitions played in framing and shaping health issues for their audiences.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Exposition Infrastructure and Exhibition Display	p. 1
An Introduction
Judging the Progress of Sanitary Science	p. 11
The 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition
Preventing Fear and Panic	p. 42
The 1893 Chicago WorldÆs Columbian Exposition
Occupying a Vast Camp	p. 88
The 1901 Buffalo Pan-American Exposition
Making a Solemn Protest	p. 123
Site and Services at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Presentations for the Public Eye	p. 152
Exhibits and Exhibitors at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Afterword	p. 193
Evolution of International Exposition Exhibit Classifications for Health and Medicine, 1867-1904	p. 199
Medical and Exposition Expenditures, Medical Treatments, and Official Fatalities for United States International Expositions, 1876-1904	p. 205
Notes	p. 209
Bibliography	p. 285
Index	p. 313
Supplemental Illustrations and Exposition Maps
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