The Chattanooga Public Library presents Politics of Yellow Fever in Alexander Hamilton’s America, a traveling exhibition produced and made available by The National Library of Medicine.
The exhibition will be on display on the 1st floor of the Downtown Library from January 9, 2024 through February 17, 2024.
This exhibition explores how the yellow fever outbreak in 1793 Philadelphia influenced politics, future outbreaks, and the development of the nation’s public health infrastructure.
In addition to the National Library of Medicine’s exhibition, viewers will learn about the 1878 yellow fever outbreak of Chattanooga through a companion display from the Library’s Local History & Genealogy Department and a presentation about the Basilica of Sts. Peter & Paul‘s Cause for Sainthood of Father Patrick Ryan, hero of Chattanooga’s 1878 epidemic.
“The history of disease tells us a lot about the human experience,” said Jessica Sedgwick, Head of Local History & Genealogy. “The experience of yellow fever in Chattanooga was devastating, but it was also this amazing moment where people really looked out for each other. I’m thrilled we can present an extensive timeline of yellow fever so that people now can learn more.”
In 1793, yellow fever ravaged Philadelphia. The deadly disease touched nearly everyone in the city: young and old, white and African American, wealthy and poor, religious and secular.
Within a month of yellow fever’s arrival in Philadelphia, the city, state, and federal governments had essentially stopped functioning. Everyone from elite physicians to quacks, private citizens to elected officials and military officers had an opinion about yellow fever. After scientists confirmed that mosquitoes can transmit yellow fever and other diseases, mosquito control emerged as an important public health measure. The quantity and variety of writing on yellow fever indicates the extent to which it occupied the thoughts of American physicians and shaped the development of the nation’s public health infrastructure.
The traveling exhibition and companion website explore how party politics shaped the response to the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia. While citizens confronted yellow fever in the absence of an effective cure or consensus about the origins of the disease, medical professionals, early political parties, and some individuals advanced their respective agendas. As a result, Philadelphia’s sick and dying received medical care informed as much by politics as by the best available science.
The National Library of Medicine produced Politics of Yellow Fever in Alexander Hamilton’s America, guest curated by public historian Ashley Bowen, PhD (editor of Perspectives on History). Politics of Yellow Fever includes an education component with a K-12 lesson plan and a university module, and a digital gallery that features a curated selection of fully digitized items from the historical collections of the NLM, which are also available in their entirety in NLM Digital Collections.
For more information about the traveling exhibition and the Library of Medicine, visit www.nlm.nih.gov. For more information about the Chattanooga Public Library and the exhibition, visit chattlibrary.org.