From daily hygiene habits, such as brushing teeth, to the ingestion of pharmaceuticals, many forms of healthcare are commonly practiced in daily life, at home. How have household healthcare practices changed over time in urban America? Taking Washington, DC as my case study, I examine patterns of household pharmaceuticals access and use across the city from 1840-1930. How did a racially and socio-economically diverse sample of households mediate and navigate early twentieth century changes to medicine access? How do the disproportionate impacts of disease epidemics map onto the racially segregated city? I address these questions by mapping archival data about disease epidemics, mapping druggist stores and physicians, and looking at patterns of pharmaceutical bottle disposal in archaeologically excavated house deposits from over 40 households dating between 1840-1930. Drawing on a synthetic, household-based approach provides insights onto the core underpinnings of present-day healthcare inequalities and the development of present-day American healthcare systems. The turn of the century is a critical moment in which to view the impact of systemic changes that have continued to shape the landscape of American healthcare. The period encapsulated in this study, roughly the Civil War through the start of Prohibition, marks a historical moment in which American healthcare institutions were created and legislation solidified the government’s role in healthcare. Washington, DC is a valuable case study, because as the nation’s capital lawmakers often enacted policies in the capital to see their effects before passing them nationwide. Drawing together statistics and storytelling, I interweave a “big data” approach with thickly described historical vignettes of individuals and their experiences with medicine.

Creator

• Lupu, Jennifer Anne

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-25vj-h907

Subject

• American history
• Archaeology

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• etdadmin_upload_987018
• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:16611

Keyword

• Washington DC
• Queer theory
• Households
• Pharmaceutical
• Material Culture
• GIS

Date created

• 2023-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright