Digital Spotlight: Contagion

CONTAGION: HISTORICAL VIEWS OF DISEASES AND EPIDEMICS is an open collection exploring Harvard’s history of medicine collection.

Contents: This large web project contains digitized copies of books, serials, pamphlets, incunabula, and manuscripts along with many visuals. In addition to searching the collection, users can also explore thematic collection related to cholera, plague, smallpox, flu, syphilis, tuberculosis, and yellow fever epidemics along with a notable person section.

Classroom Connections: Science and history teachers will find fascinating documents that bring the history of disease and epidemics to life. English teachers may incorporate these primary source documents into historical fiction literature circles.

Featured Digital Objects:
Cholera Epidemics http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/cholera.html
Spanish Influenza http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/influenza.html
Yellow Fever of 1793 http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/yellowfever.html

To visit the collection, http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/.