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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

Take a Hay Ride: Remembering Louise Hay

Did the bestselling self-help author do more harm than good for early patients with AIDS?
by Sarah Swedberg via Nursing Clio on January 16, 2018

The Accidental Poison That Founded the Modern FDA

Elixir Sulfanilamide was a breakthrough antibiotic—until it killed more than 100 people.
by Julian G. West via The Atlantic on January 16, 2018
original

Snails, Hedgehog Heads and Stale Beer

A peek inside premodern cookbooks.
by Benjamin Breen on December 15, 2017

The US Medical System is Still Haunted by Slavery

Medicine’s dark history helps explain why black mothers are dying at alarming rates.
by Ranjani Chakraborty via Vox on December 7, 2017

Cancer and Captivity: Reflections on Affliction in Puritan and Modern Times

It seemed to me that the conditions of cancer and captivity shared physical, emotional, and spiritual correspondences.
by Zabelle Stodola via Commonplace on November 21, 2017
original

A World in a Box

Harvard digitizes two centuries of colonial history.
by Benjamin Breen on November 15, 2017
Bottle of OxyContin.

The Family That Built an Empire of Pain

The Sackler dynasty’s ruthless marketing of painkillers has generated billions of dollars—and millions of addicts.
by Patrick Radden Keefe via The New Yorker on October 30, 2017

The Ruin: Roosevelt Island’s Smallpox Hospital

An inside look at a forgotten Northeast epicenter of smallpox treatment.
by Selin Thomas via The Paris Review on October 30, 2017

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

Nature's Disastrous ‘Whitewashing’ Editorial

Science's ethos of self-correction should apply to how it thinks about its own history, too.
by Ross Andersen via The Atlantic on September 6, 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

Metaphors and Malignancy in Senator McCain’s Cancer Diagnosis

How does one talk about cancer, something so unpleasant that is almost always linked with death, and where do metaphors come in?
by Agnes Arnold-Forster via Nursing Clio on July 31, 2017

Weighing the Baby

When did the practice of weighing newborns begin? And why?
by Deborah Warner via National Museum of American History on July 10, 2017
Doctors performing a lobotomy while others watch.
partner

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

Mapping a Demon Malady: Cholera Maps and Affect in 1832

Cholera maps chart the movement of the disease, and the terror that accompanied it.
by Sarah Schuetze via Commonplace on September 25, 2016

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
An 1878 illustration from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, depicting hungry citizens in Memphis.

The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878

A primary source set and teaching guide created by educators.
by Samantha Gibson via Digital Public Library of America on April 7, 2016
Sign reading "Is your child vaccinated?"
partner

Contagion

How prior generations of Americans responded to the threat of infectious disease.
via BackStory on February 19, 2016

The True Story of Phineas Gage Is Much More Fascinating Than the Mythical Textbook Accounts

Each generation revises his myth. Here’s the true story.
by Sam Kean via Slate on May 7, 2014
Cover of "Empire of Necessity" featuring a painting of violence being wrought on enslaved men.

The Bleached Bones of the Dead

What the modern world owes slavery. (It’s more than back wages).
by Greg Grandin via Tom Dispatch on February 23, 2014
A mother holding her infant child in her lap.
partner

Before the Ward

On the movement away from midwifery towards hospital births.
via BackStory on May 10, 2013

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
partner

How Suffering Shaped Emancipation

Jim Downs discusses the plight of freed slaves during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
by Jim Downs, Robin Lindley via HNN on August 6, 2012
Reconstruction of Mt. Malady hospital at Henricus Historical Park, Virginia.
partner

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
Marine hospital

Sailors’ Health and National Wealth

That the federal government created this health care system for merchant mariners in the early American republic will surprise many.
by Gautham Rao via Commonplace on October 1, 2008
An open hand holds a variety of pills and supplements.

Supplement History: The Truth About Supplements and Vitamins That Teens Should Know

A lack of regulatory oversight of supplements allows misleading labels and dangerous products to slip through the cracks and into American homes.
by Sarah DiGregorio via Teen Vogue on July 31, 2025
17th-century surgeon performing a c-section.
partner

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
A drawing of a microscopic slide of Bacterium lactis.

Dying Before Germ Theory

The harrowing experience of being powerless against illness and death.
by Melanie A. Kiechle via Nursing Clio on July 21, 2025
Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Acey Harper/Getty Images.

The Angry Death of Kimberly Bergalis

A dark mystery shocked America in the early 1990s, from prime-time shows to Congress. It’s largely been forgotten. It shouldn’t be.
by Josh Levin via Slate on June 25, 2025
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