WRI 149/150: The Politics of Disease: Finding primary sources

Often, the best work arises from close engagement with a primary source. As you read, you'll think of questions or begin to shape an argument. The hard part is to find a primary source that addresses the broad general area of interest. Here are some strategies for finding primary sources:

• Check the footnotes, endnotes and bibliography of a good academic book on your topic.
• Use the word sources as a keyword when searching the Main Catalog.
• Consult the subject guides at http://libguides.princeton.edu
• Search the finding aids for collections in Special Collections and Mudd Manuscript Library.

• National Library of Medicine Digital Collections (https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/). Contains digital collections including Images from the History of Medicine; Tropical Disease Motion Pictures; The Public Health Film Goes to War; Cholera Online, Films and Videos, etc.  

• Literature Arts Medicine Database (https://medhum.med.nyu.edu/): a collection of literature, fine art, visual art and performing art annotations created as a dynamic, comprehensive resource for scholars, educators, students, patients, and others interested in medical humanities.

• The Medical Heritage Library (see collections here: https://archive.org/details/medicalheritagelibrary), a collection of digitized medical rare books, pamphlets, journals, and films. (They also have a Flickr collection).

• The Wellcome Library Images Collection (https://wellcomecollection.org/images).

• Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics (https://library.harvard.edu/collections/contagion-historical-views-diseases-and-epidemics). A collection of texts and visual materials relating to the history of epidemics from the Harvard University Libraries. 

• The Influenza Encyclopedia (https://www.influenzaarchive.org/). Historical documents pertaining to the 1918 pandemic. 

• AIDS Education Poster Database (https://aep.lib.rochester.edu/). A digitized collection of public health posters relating to HIV/AIDS. 

• Medicine and Madison Avenue (https://repository.duke.edu/dc/mma). Advertising items and publications dating from 1850 to 1920, illustrating the rise of consumer culture and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States.

• The Historical Medical Poster Collection (Yale) (https://library.medicine.yale.edu/find/poster): focuses primarily on public health communications, but also has examples of medical product advertising, recruiting, and aid and relief solicitations.

• Opioid Industry Documents: An archive of millions of documents created by opioid manufacturers and related companies, hosted by the UCSF Library in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University. (https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/opioids) 

• Truth Tobacco Industry Documents (https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/tobacco/): An archive of 14 million documents created by tobacco companies about their advertising, manufacturing, marketing, scientific research and political activities, hosted by the UCSF Library.

• Drug Industry Documents (https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/drug/): An archive of documents created by major pharmaceutical companies related to their advertising, manufacturing, marketing, sales and scientific research, hosted by the UCSF Library.

• Food Industry Documents (https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/food/): An archive of documents from the food industry related to their manufacturing, operations, regulatory activities, and scientific research, hosted by the UCSF Library.
   

• COVID-19 Vaccine Public Service Announcements (PSAs) (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/845383): This Digital Collection presents 71 early COVID-19 vaccine public service announcements (PSAs) in video format from late 2020 and early 2021.

• COVID-19 Ads and Public Service Announcements (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/760220): During the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic (March–April 2020), Advertising & Society Quarterly collected advertisements and public service announcements (PSAs) related to the global health crisis, which can be used for future reflection, research, and teaching. This collection consists of over 100 videos and includes commercial advertisements and public service announcements; government and non-profit public service announcements; political advertisements; and celebrity public service announcements.

• Erase COVID Posters (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/797073): This Digital Collection presents 169 posters from the Erase COVID project, a global artist collective that formed around the time COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020. Artists from about a dozen countries came together to make a series of visually rich public service announcements (PSAs) to recommend important health safety practices and draw attention to major concerns impacting society. 

• You may also wish to search or browse historical issues of medical journals for articles, op-eds, or advertisements, such as the Journal of the American Medical Association; The New England Journal of Medicine; or the American Journal of Public Health. 

• Magazine articles (or advertisements) on medical topics from popular publications like Life, Time, Popular Science, etc. can be really fascinating windows into the popular promotion, reception, or understanding of medical ideas/developments.