What can evidence from the past tell us about health, medicine, and society today? Historical examples like the 1918-19 influenza pandemic have come back into the limelight as a way to help us understand the present. Understanding the historical and social context of health sciences can inform and enrich your scholarship and clinical practice.
This interactive session will introduce you to historical sources in archives, show you how to find them, and offer tips on how to incorporate these primary historical sources into your research.
General tips: For topics that are new to you, start with a broad overview from reliable secondary sources. Note questions that the sources raise, and note important names (people, places, institutions) and keywords that could be useful in searching. From there, dig deeper by looking for primary sources.
See below for selected examples from the history of vaccines and of mental health care.
An example of sources from a recent blog post, Connecting OHSU Library Resources with “Care and Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health”
Care and Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health
National Library of Medicine exhibition on how society has responded to people with psychiatric disabilities in the United States throughout history