Morality, Medicine, & Microbes: A History of Venereal Disease
Taught by Erin Wuebker
Erin Wuebker is an historian who specializes in public health, visual culture, and the history of women, gender, and sexuality. She received her PhD in American history from CUNY Graduate Center. Currently she teaches at Queens College and works at the Museum of the City of New York and Brooklyn Historical Society. If you like tweets about VD propaganda or history, follow her at @erinewuebker.
In the early 20th century, an estimated 10% of Americans would contract syphilis at some point in their lives and 20-40% would be infected with gonorrhea. Then as today, the issue of how to control these diseases was often controversial, politicized, and shaped by stereotypes and stigma.
In spite of this stigma, public health efforts to “stamp out” syphilis and gonorrhea became hugely popular in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s as a way to strengthen both families and the nation. A nationwide program to test and treat all Americans for VD was coupled with a wide-ranging visual campaign consisting of posters, films, and infographics intended to raise awareness of and encourage the eradication of venereal disease.
In this class, we’ll examine the profound effect these diseases and the attempts to control them had on American life during the early 20th century, with a strong focus on visual culture.
