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Illustration of 1844 Philadelphia riots

When Philadelphia Became a Battlefield, Its Surgeons Bore Witness

The surgeons’ observations survive thanks to a remarkable document: an eleven-page published report presented to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
by Zachary M. Schrag via Nursing Clio on June 22, 2021

A Brief and Awful History of the Lobotomy

Groundbreaking discoveries... but at what cost?
by Andrew Scull via Literary Hub on July 30, 2019

How the C-Section Went From Last Resort to Overused

Today, 1 in 3 American babies are delivered via the procedure, twice what the World Health Organization recommends.
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on May 21, 2018
Doctors performing a lobotomy while others watch.
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Lobotomy: A Dangerous Fad's Lingering Effect on Mental Illness Treatment

From the 1930s to the 1950s a radical surgery — the lobotomy — would forever change our understanding and treatment of the mentally ill.
by Barbara Dury, Margaret M. Ebrahim via Retro Report on April 16, 2017
Secret Service agent Paul Landis, JFK, and Jackie Kennedy in crowd.

A New JFK Assassination Revelation Could Upend the Long-Held “Lone Gunman” Theory

Former Secret Service agent Paul Landis, largely silent for 60 years, says he found a bullet in Kennedy’s limo. Here's why that’s so significant, if true.
by James D. Robenalt via Vanity Fair on September 9, 2023
Ozempic injection and box
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For 150 Years, We’ve Sought a Scientific Solution To Cure Addiction

A miracle cure for addiction may not be around the corner.
by Simon Torracinta via Made By History on July 11, 2023
Handwritten sign that says, "We know more than our doctors."

Doctors Who?

The history of DIY transition offers one path toward what might come after, or in the place of, state-sanctioned care.
by Jules Gill-Peterson via The Baffler on October 4, 2022
An old hospital room

“I Assumed It Was Urgent”: Helen Hurd’s Story

The story of medical sterilization, which in many cases was disguised as a routine appendectomy surgery.
by Caryn Radick via Nursing Clio on March 16, 2021
Protesters opposing ICE detention camps.
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The History of Eugenics in the U.S. Has Made Migrant Women Vulnerable

Marginalized women of color have long seen their reproductive freedom limited.
by Brianna Theobald via Made By History on September 20, 2020
19th caricature of a dentist extracting a tooth

Sicko Doctors: Suffering and Sadism in 19th-Century America

American fiction of the 19th century often featured a cruel doctor, whose unfeeling fascination with bodily suffering readers found unnerving.
by Chelsea Davis via The Public Domain Review on July 1, 2020
Medical professionals confer at the entrance to a hospital emergency room.
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Doctors and Hospitals Are Struggling Financially in a Pandemic. Here’s Why.

Procedures drive the bottom line in our medical system.
by Mical Raz via Made By History on March 11, 2020
Archaeologist excavating a bone.

Civil War Battlefield 'Limb Pit' Reveals Work Of Combat Surgeons

Bones uncovered at the Manassas National Battlefield Park provide insights into surgery during the Civil War.
by Christopher Joyce via NPR on June 20, 2018

Black Subjectivity and the Origins of American Gynecology

A review of Deirdre Cooper Owens' "Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology."
by Rachel Zellars via Black Perspectives on May 31, 2018

NYC Will Move—But Not Remove—Statue of Gynecologist Who Experimented on Slaves

Some say the decision to move the statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims from Central Park to a Brooklyn cemetery is a "slap in the face."
by Kimberly Lawson via Broadly on April 16, 2018

The Husband Stitch Isn’t Just a Horrifying Childbirth Myth

When repairing tearing from birth, some providers put in an extra stitch “for daddy,” with painful consequences for women.
by Carrie Murphy via Healthline on January 24, 2018

The Eye at War: American Eye Prosthetics During the World Wars

How the U.S. military handled a shortage of prosthetic eyes for injured soldiers.
by Evan P. Sullivan via Nursing Clio on September 25, 2017

More Than a Statue: Rethinking J. Marion Sims’ Legacy

The "father of U.S. gynecology" is usually depicted as either a monstrous butcher or a benevolent healer. It's not that simple.
by Deirdre Cooper Owens via Rewire on August 24, 2017

At the Start of the Civil War, Few Union Army Surgeons Had Ever Treated a Gunshot Wound

An exercise in understatement that would be funny if it weren't so tragic.
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on July 6, 2016

War and Prosthetics: How Veterans Fought for the Perfect Artificial Limb

The needs and entrepreneurship of wounded soldiers have driven many of the most significant advances in prosthetic technology.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford via Collectors Weekly on October 29, 2012
The President Is a Sick Man by Matthew Algeo, book cover

A Yacht, A Mustache: How A President Hid His Tumor

Grover Cleveland believed that if anything happened to his mustache during his surgery at sea, the public would know something was wrong.
by Matthew Algeo via NPR on July 6, 2011
Reconstruction of Mt. Malady hospital at Henricus Historical Park, Virginia.
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Health Care in the New World

Reporter Catherine Moore visits the first hospital in the New World and finds out why the “public plan” in the Virginia colony may have had its drawbacks.
via BackStory on October 1, 2009
17th-century surgeon performing a c-section.
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Pelvic Obsessions

How the “obstetrical dilemma” and the dark history of pelvimetry met in the present.
by Lynne Feeley via HNN on July 29, 2025
Syringe drawing liquid from a vial.

Vaccine Rejection is as Old as Vaccines Themselves

How and why ideas like germ theory are pursued, accepted or ignored, and how human habits of the mind can make it difficult to ask the right questions.
by Nicoletta Lanese, Thomas Levenson via Live Science on April 29, 2025
Advertisement promoting cocaine toothache drops, 1889.

An Undulating Thrill

Once lauded as a wonder of the age, cocaine soon became the object of profound anxieties. What happened?
by Douglas Small via Aeon on October 4, 2024
Misery and Fortune of Women (1930).

The Lost Abortion Plot

Power and choice in the 1930s novel.
by Julia Cooke via The Point on June 11, 2024
Inventor of mifepristone Etienne-Emile Baulieu in lab

The Long and Winding History of the War on Abortion Drugs

While these pills are making headlines in the US, where a Texas judge tried to ban them, the story of their invention is often overlooked.
by Lara Bullens via France24 on April 26, 2023
Oil painting by Claire Lehmann called "Painter’s Hand, Patron’s Hand."

Learning and Not Learning Abortion

The fact that most doctors like me don't know how to perform abortions is one of the greatest scandals of contemporary medicine in the US.
by Laura Kolbe via n+1 on November 15, 2022
African-American man holding a medical bag, posing behind horse-drawn carriage.

Doctors Without Borders

On the Black doctors who received their medical degrees and a new sort of freedom in Europe.
by Deirdre Mask via Lapham’s Quarterly on April 7, 2022
Side-by-side portraits of Lincoln, Rockwell, and Garfield

This Man Was the Only Eyewitness to the Deaths of Both Lincoln and Garfield

Almon F. Rockwell's newly resurfaced journals, excerpted exclusively here, offer an incisive account of the assassinated presidents' final moments.
by Jason Emerson via Smithsonian on January 7, 2022

Seeing the Pandemic Through the Shuttered Bungalows of an L.A. Sanatorium

Once a haven for tuberculosis patients, Barlow Respiratory Hospital is uniquely suited to the COVID and post-COVID eras.
by Elizabeth Svoboda via Atlas Obscura on July 15, 2021
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