Men, are your minds ‘diseased’? Women,
do you know the dangers of ‘chance acquaintances’?
Does anyone really know what representative citizens think about
prostitution?
The staff of Government & Geographic Information
and Data Services has put together an exhibit of some of the
many poignant and, at times, quite humorous, documents which answer
these questions. The pamphlets and books are representative of
the kind of information the U.S. Government believed important
for men, women, and children to have in order to be strong and
productive citizens. From hookworm to venereal disease, from
leprosy
in Hawaii to the plague in California, from alcoholism and trafficking
opium to advocating DDT to combat malaria there was seemingly
no topic too delicate to raise in the interest of social hygiene
by
the U.S. Public Health Services from 1920-1950.
Come visit the Government Information Reference
area to see the exhibit and enjoy reading about how and why, in
1920, it was important
to ‘control the train.’ You also can see Theodor Geisel’s
(Dr. Seuss) art work in support of using DDT to fight malaria;
and the Treasury Department’s Manual of the Mental Examination
of Aliens to instruct immigration workers at Ellis Island
in how to ‘inspect
immigrants' and keep 'mental defectives' from entering the country.
Gov Info
is open Monday-Thursday 8:30-9:00 p.m. and Friday-Saturday, 8:30-5:00.
The Case Against the Red Light District (Washington, D.C.:
The Public Health Service, 1920)
Healthy Happy Womanhood: a Pamphlet for Girls and Young
Women (Washington, D.C.: The Public Health Service, 1921)
High Schools and Sex Education: A Manual of Suggestions
on Education Related to Sex (Washington, D.C.: The Public
Health Service, 1922)
Keeping Fit (Washington, D.C.: The Public Health Service,
1919)
Keeping Fit: a Pamphlet for Adolescent Boys (Washington, D.C.:
The Public Health Service, 1934)
Manpower (Washington, D.C.: The Public Health Service, 1919)
Manual of the Mental Examination of Aliens (Washington, D.C.:
The Treasury Department, 1918)
The Parents’ Part (Washington, D.C.: The United States
Public Health Service, 1918)
A People’s War (Washington, D.C.: The Public Health
Service, 1919)
The Problem of Sex Education in Schools (Washington, D.C.:
The Public Health Service, 1918)
The Present Pandemic of Plague by Assistant Surgeon-General
J.M. Eager (Washington, D.C.: Treasury Department, Public Health
and Marine-Hospital Service of the United States, 1908)
The Present Status of the Leprosy Problem in Hawaii by Walter
R. Brickerhoff (Washington, D.C.: Treasury Department, Public
Health and Marine-Hospital Service of the United States, 1908)
Requirements of Premarital Legislation (Washington, D.C.:
The Public Health Service, 1945)
The Story of a Boy who did not grow up to be a Tall Strong
Man (Washington, D.C.: The Public Health Service, 1917)
Sex Education: a Symposium for Educators (Washington, D.C.:
The Public Health Service, 1927)
Today’s Problem in Disease Prevention: a Non-Technical
Discussion of Syphilis and Gonorrhea (Washington, D.C.:
The Public Health Service, 1919)
Towards Better National Health (Washington, D.C.: Interdepartmental
Committee to Coordinate Health and Welfare Activities, 1938)
Traffic in Opium and other Dangerous Drugs (Washington, D.C.:
Treasury Department, Bureau of Narcotics, 1935)
Tuberculosis, Its Nature and Prevention by F. C. Smith (Washington,
D.C.: Treasury Department, Public Health and Marine-Hospital
Service of the United States, 1910)
Venereal Disease Handbook for Community Leaders (Washington,
D.C.: The Public Health Service, 1924)
What Representative Citizens Think About Prostitution (Washington,
D.C.: The Public Health Service, 1921)
The Wonderful Story of Life: A Father’s Talks with His
Little Son Regarding Life and Its Reproduction (Washington,
D.C.: The Public Health Service, 1924)
The Wonderful Story of Life: A Mother’s Talks with Her
Daughter Regarding Life and Its Reproduction (Washington,
D.C.: The Public Health Service, 1921)
The Wonderful Story of Life: A Parent’s Talks with Children
Regarding Life and Its Reproduction (Washington, D.C.:
The Public Health Service, 1937)
This is Ann—She’s Dying to Meet You, Illustrations
by Theodore Geisel (Washington, D.C.: The War
Department, 1943)
Available online in a slightly different format: http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/diptera/ann1.htm
You—and Your Boy (Washington, D.C.: The Public Health
Service, 1927)
Your Country Needs You: A Talk with Girls by Mrs. Woodallen
Chapman (Washington, D.C.: The Public Health Service, 1918)
-------
Two excellent related articles:
Alexandra Lord, “Naturally Clean and Wholesome: Women,
Sex Education, and the United States Public Health Service,
1918–1928” Social History of Medicine 17.3 (2004)
423-441 available to the NU community at: http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/17/3/423
Alexandra Lord, “Models of Masculinity: Sex Education,
the United States Public Health Service, and the YMCA, 1919–1924” Journal
of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 58.2
(2003) 123-152 available to the NU community at: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_medicine_and_allied_sciences/v058/58.2lord01.pdf
Additional information and images of social hygiene
posters can be found at the Social
Welfare History Archives at the University
of Minnesota. They have set up an online image database available
here: http://special.lib.umn.edu/swha/IMAGES/search.html
