Imaging the Medical Humanities: St. Patrick's Day

It's been awhile since we've done any posts in the Imaging series, so here's a couple of images collected in honor of St. Patrick's Day, the national holiday of Ireland.

Arrival of emigrants at Ellis Island, 1906

(Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA)

This triptych depicts immigrants arriving in Ellis Island.  While this might not seem to have any obvious link to the medical humanities, the long history associating immigrants with contagion and disease suggests otherwise.  Which leads us to . . .

This is a(n in)famous cartoon depicting Mary Mallon, derisively referred to as Typhoid Mary, who was imprisoned against her will by New York public health officials for the last 23 years of her life.  Mallon, a domestic servant, carried the bacteria that causes typhoid fever.  As she was involved in food preparation, and given the state of food hygiene at the time, it is not necessarily surprising that she passed the bacteria to dozens of people, several of whom died.

Judith Walzer Leavitt documents thoroughly the extent of anti-Irish (and misogynistic) sentiment that contributed to her sad fate.  Rosenberg's classic book on cholera documents the sweeping anti-Irish sentiment that prompted many during New York City's cholera epidemics to blame the Irish for spreading disease.  For more on the connection between immigrants, contagion, and stigma, see Alan Kraut's fine book.

Of course, Irish medical history cannot obviously be reduced to issues pertaining to stigma and immigration.  Still, on a day when many are celebrating Irish culture and heritage and the Irish contribution to American culture, it's worth pausing to reflect on issues relating to strangers, foreigners, and illness, which have certainly been a part of Irish history in the U.S.