Yellow fever ravaged Philadelphia in 1793. “A new order of things is rising in medicine, as well as in government.” Dr. Benjamin Rush The deadly disease touched nearly everyone in the city: young and old, white and African American, wealthy and poor, religious and secular. No one really knew what caused the disease or how[…]
By shielding British loyalists from persecution, the founder elevated principles over prejudice. The struggles of America’s cultural outsiders to be included in the country—in the face of disparagement, exclusion, or punishment—are as old as the nation. And, as Alexander Hamilton discovered in the 1770s and 1780s, they cut to the core of what it means[…]
An interview with Dr. Joanne B. Freeman, professor of history and American studies at Yale University, about Alexander Hamilton. In 2015, the U.S. Treasury announced it was going to replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill. Then came the deluge of Hamilton interest inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical, literally casting a spotlight on the words[…]
Rebecca Rego Barry on Dr. David Hosack, the doctor who attended Alexander Hamilton to his duel (and death), and creator of one of the first botanical gardens in the United States, home to thousands of species which he used for his pioneering medical research. Hosack mostly rejected customary treatments like bloodletting and doses of mercury.[…]