Contagion - Historical Views of Diseases

I was visiting the Educational Technology blog and I was lead to a section of Harvard University's Library's Open Collections program.

Contagion is a look at historical events caused by disease or epidemic conditions. It is also an opportunity to view life and how a society dealt with death, pre-conceived notions of illness and treatment.

I viewed the section about Yellow Fever in Philadelphia. I was able to read digital books written in 1774 as the authors try to convey their thoughts about the "Malignant Fever" that spread through the city.

Not only can you read text but there is a timeline, and for later outbreaks photos and slide shows.

Harvard University Library has other collections that are available for browsing online. The Digital Collections archive has a variety of collections such as Botanical and Cultural Images of Eastern Asia, Daguerreotypes at Harvard (a early form of photography) a Latin America Pamphlet collection and more.