Menu Close

Articles on Medical history

Displaying 1 - 20 of 51 articles

A participant in the Tuskegee syphilis study sits on steps in front of a house in Tuskegee, Alabama. Associated Press/Alamy Stock Photo

The US once withheld syphilis treatment from hundreds of Black men in the name of science. Newly public records are helping us understand how it could happen

The archival trove chronicles the extreme measures administrators took to ensure Black sharecroppers did not receive treatment for the venereal disease.
Caricature of vaccination scene at the Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital at St. Pancras Hospital in London, by James Giray, 1802. Library of Congress

Video: What we can learn from a book documenting the first vaccine, for smallpox

The success of the smallpox vaccine was far from guaranteed when Edward Jenner first published his treatise in late 18th century. A curator of the book talks about what we can learn from it today.

Top contributors

More