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The Dittrick Museum Online Exhibits: SmallPox

Did you know that Dittrick has digital exhibits? Our website hosts several "online" exhibits, guest-written by talented people. Today, I will be presenting from "Small Pox: A city on the edge of Disaster," written by Patsy Gerstner, PhD. The full online exhibit may be found on the Dittrick website, under online exhibits. ...In the early years of the 20th century, the city of Cleveland experienced a major outbreak of smallpox. This epidemic brought the city to the edge of disaster in 1902. Only a program of community-wide vaccination halted the spread of this dreaded infectious disease. This was not...

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For the LOVE of Medical History

For our final #MuseumWeek post we're talking about why we LOVE medical history and why we hope that love is contagious! #loveMW It's not uncommon for the Dittrick Medical History Center to be referred to a bit like a cabinet of curiosities,  a niche museum, or perhaps more kindly, a "hidden treasure." Although we've always worked to make collections accessible and major public engagement efforts are underway, we still often have to make the case for the (sometimes not so) implicit question "Why should I care about medical history?" The answer tends to go a little like this: Medical history is the history...

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