How Racism and "Tropical Medicine" Built the Panama Canal.

At the turn of the 20th century, the physician William Gorgas led work that substantially mitigated mortality from mosquito-borne diseases among workers building the Panama Canal. The waterway launched the United States to political and economic superpower status by eliminating the need for risky maritime travel around the southern tip of South America, expediting exportation of US goods in international markets. Yet, as this article explains, innovations that curbed malaria and yellow fever were deeply rooted in racist foundations of capital and empire.

Fat Norms and the AMA.

This article features images from the AMA Archives and brief narration of their importance for how Americans have oriented themselves to body habitus norms. In the early 20th century, the United States, as an industrialized nation with more food than ever, began to grapple with obesity. Questions about how to measure weight were being asked by the mid-20th century, as health professionals needed an indicator of obesity to accompany medicine's attempts to help patients and populations control it as a health risk.

Why 1962 Matters in the History of Clinicians' Responses to Abused and Neglected Children.

Although scientific literature about child abuse dates back to the 1850s, how society and medicine discussed and responded to this set of concerns changed dramatically in 1962. Since that time, the problem's fuller scope has been revealed and reforms have been implemented.

How Long Have Supplements Promised to Make Us Slim, Sexy, and Virile?

The American Medical Association's Historic Health Fraud and Alternative Medicine Collection provides a glimpse into the origins of America's cosmetic and supplement industry and the advertising practices that sustain it.

Why Don't Medicare and Medicaid Cover Dental Health Services?

Dental symptoms can cause severe health problems. Yet, while dental insurance is seen by many as a luxury, medical insurance is widely considered to be essential. Born in the legislative advent of Medicare, which covers no dental costs, and Medicaid, which covers few, the medical-dental divide has created and exacerbated health inequity between those who can afford dental care and those who cannot. This article offers a brief visual and narrative history of how this happened and why dentistry exists outside medicine rather than as a specialty within it.

How Pseudoscience Generated US Material and Device Regulations.

The images in the American Medical Association's Historic Health Fraud and Alternative Medicine Collection include quack devices from the early 20th century, which gave rise to regulatory and professional oversight.