If you missed the live presentation of this lecture, a recording is now available at the link below. You can also access a digital version of Anna’s manuscript below.
Anna’s project examines the lived experience of cystic fibrosis (CF) in the latter half of the 20th century as expressed through the healthcare objects associated with its treatment. By tracing the material histories of two fundamental categories of CF-related objects, inhalation therapies and parenteral antibiotics, she evokes the changing routines of everyday life with the illness from the 1940s to 1990s.
As both a historian and a person who herself has CF, Anna aims to deepen a narrative long focused on medical innovation. Contextualizing relevant objects, within the collection of the Museum of Health Care and beyond, with contemporary medical reports, media articles, personal narratives, and her own experiences, her project not only analyzes changes in the historical treatment of cystic fibrosis, but more importantly offers an example of material culture’s potential to illuminate the nuanced intersections between illness, healthcare, and individual lives.
Special thanks to Ian M. Fraser and Janine M. Schweitzer for their generous support of the 2022 Margaret Angus Research Fellowship.