We warmly invite Oxford researchers and students to trial Pandemics, Society, and Public Health, 1517–1925.

This resource documents the history and impact of pandemics from the 16^th century to the early 20^th century with a particular focus on the plague, cholera, smallpox and influenza.

It will be of interest to those researching history of medicine, history of public health, but also social and economic history, and those studying the impact of pandemics on British society and culture in the course of five centuries more generally.

Copyright: Microform Academic Publishers

Over 79,000 images come from the collections of The National Archives, British Library, University College London and London Metropolitan Archives.

PC 1/4399: Correspondence and Quarantine Questionnaire Regarding the Crew Health of Various Ships Copyright: Microform Academic Publishers

The collection opens with sources relating to the first state-mandated quarantine in England in 1517. It concludes with documentation regarding the devastating effects of the 1918 influenza pandemic (often referred to as the “Spanish Flu” pandemic).

The material is rich and diverse. Included are correspondence, certificates, minutes, records, registers, treatises, case notes, surveys, and observations. You will also come across prayers to help safeguard populations from plague, records of attempts to transmit smallpox via infected letters, prosecutions of those failing to comply with government-imposed quarantines, registers of patented designs featuring vaccination and sanitation equipment, and sheet music to boost morale during the influenza pandemic that followed the First World War.

This collection likewise contains sources drawn from the papers of some of the most influential figures in medical and social history, such as Edward Jenner, Edwin Chadwick, Florence Nightingale, and John Snow.

Email feedback to Isabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

While you are here, why not check out…

• collections of the History of Medicine Library (HML), Bodleian Libraries
• Essays and Dissertations of the Scottish Royal Medical Society, 1751-1970 [SSO required for off-campus access]
• London’s Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972: The Medical Officer of Health reports (free resource)
• Medical Heritage Library (free resource)
•  Royal College of Physicians – Part I (Wiley Digital Archives) [SSO required for off-campus access]
• UK Medical Heritage Library: Visualising Medical History (free resource)
• Wellcome Collections