Tag Archives: Thomas Jefferson

Soul power

January 12, 2023

Shannon Adams-Hartung Chicago, Illinois, United States   Cooking fried supper for a benefit picnic supper on the grounds of St. Thomas’ Church, near Bardstown, Kentucky. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott, August 7, 1940. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black & White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33-030967-M4. Soul food has deep historical, cultural, and economic […]

Drapetomania: A “disease” that never was

October 6, 2022

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   Two unidentified escaped slaves wearing ragged clothes. Photo by McPherson & Oliver, between 1861 and 1865. Liljenquist Family Collection, Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication. “Slavery is next to hell.” – Harriet Tubman “And before I’d be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave…” – Oh, Freedom, […]

The three contraries of Benjamin Franklin: “the gout, the stone and not yet master of all my passions”

January 25, 2021

James L. Franklin Chicago, Illinois, United States   Fig 1: Portrait of Benjamin Franklin. From a carbonic alloy engraving, drawn by C. N. Cochin 1777, engraved by A.H. Richie. Public Domain. Via Wikimedia  On May 23, 1785, Benjamin Franklin wrote from Passy on the outskirts of Paris to George Whatley that “at Fourscore the three […]

Benjamin Rush—Heritage and hope

June 15, 2020

C. Frederick Kittle Chicago, Illinois, United States   Excerpted from the The Proceedings of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago, Vol. 34, 1981. Based on a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Alumni Association of Rush Medical College, September 13, 1976. Reprinted from Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s “Magazine,” Winter 1976–77.   Benjamin Rush by Charles […]

Bleeding science dry: The history of scientific racism and blood

February 10, 2020

Matthew Casas Kansas City, United States   Help the Red Cross. U.S. Food Administration. Educational Division. Advertising Section. 1917 – 1919. National Archives Catalog, identifier 512661. One might be familiar with the expression “We All Bleed Red.” But what exactly does blood have to say about our “humanity”? Ripe with good intention, the aforementioned mantra […]

Thomas Jefferson’s medical schools

July 20, 2017

John Ehrhardt Patrick O’Leary Miami, Florida, United States   Portrait of Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States of America, devoted much of his life to science, medicine, and education. Entering the College of William & Mary at sixteen, he was mentored in science and […]