In the Spotlight

GovInfo's Social Hygiene exhibit

Men, are your minds “diseased?” Women, do you know the dangers of “chance acquaintances”? Does anyone really know the risks associated with improper dance positions and the danger of the “familiarities” which can result? Do you know what representative citizens think about prostitution? Or the social cost of cavorting with sporting women? The staff of the Department of Government and Geographic Information and Data Services (Gov Info) has put together an exhibit of poignant and, at times, quite humorous, documents used by the US Public Health Services to answer these questions, circa 1920-1950. These pamphlets and books are representative of the kind of information the US 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 to trafficking opium, and advocating DDT to combat malaria, there was seemingly no topic too delicate to raise in the interest of social hygiene.

Based on the amount of available information, the PHS took very seriously the specific responsibility to promote good health by launching a comprehensive sex education program to help the government stamp out venereal disease. This focus on sex education was fueled by the perception of “declining sexual standards” due to the creation of dancehalls, the shift in dating norms, the availability of motor vehicles, and the increase of women in the work force. Clearly, women with independent means and men with cars were a formula for social disaster that PHS needed to address at length in the pamphlets, books, and posters. Sex education was presented in the context of “Keeping Fit,” a program of health and well-being targeted specifically to boys and men, which reached large numbers of them over a period of at least 20 years through schools and YMCA programs. Programs targeted to women were less successful because they were “wife” and “motherhood” focused and seemed to dismiss women who lived outside the boundaries of traditional roles. Nonetheless, while the success of those original PHS programs was slight, it did establish the government’s role in guiding national public health issues, a role which persists today within the US Department of Health and Human Services.

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 the early art work of Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) illustrating the use of DDT to fight malaria; and the Treasury Department’s Manual of Mental Examination of Aliens, instructing immigration workers about how to “inspect immigrants” entering the country. The Department of Government and Geographic Information and Data Services is open Monday-Thursday 8:30-9 p.m. and Friday-Saturday, 8:30-5:00.

Kathleen Murphy
Data Services Librarian

For more information on the exhibit and Gov Info, visit www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/display/current_display.html.

Digital image of "Danger in Familiarities" courtesy of Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota,Youth and Life poster #33, http://special.lib.umn.edu/swha/exhibits/hygiene/index.htm. Additional images courtesy of NUL Department of Government and Geographic Information and Data Services.