Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Brown, Julie K

Titel

Connecting health and natural history: a failed initiative at the American Museum of Natural History, 1909-1922

Ist Teil von

• American journal of public health (1971), 2014-10, Vol.104 (10), p.1877-1888

Ort / Verlag

United States: American Public Health Association

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

PAIS Index

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In 1909, curator Charles-Edward Winslow established a department of public health in New York City's American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Winslow introduced public health as a biological science that connected human health-the modern sciences of physiology, hygiene, and urban sanitation-to the natural history of plants and animals. This was the only time an American museum created a curatorial department devoted to public health. The AMNH's Department of Public Health comprised a unique collection of live bacterial cultures-a "Living Museum"-and an innovative plan for 15 exhibits on various aspects of health. I show how Winslow, facing opposition from AMNH colleagues, gathered scientific experts and financial support, and explain the factors that made these developments seem desirable and possible. I finish with a discussion of how the Department of Public Health met an abrupt and "inglorious end" in 1922 despite the success of its collections and exhibitions.