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  • Article

The big freeze

In recent years we’ve come to realise that global heating is our biggest threat. But it’s hard to shake off the fear of a return to ice-age conditions, the predominant narrative since the late 17th century.

  • Article

Epidemic threats and racist legacies

Epidemiology is the systematic, data-driven study of health and disease in populations. But as historian Jacob Steere-Williams suggests, this most scientific of fields emerged in the 19th century imbued with a doctrine of Western imperialism – a legacy that continues to influence how we talk about disease.

  • In pictures

Pum Dunbar’s living lessons

Read the ‘legends’ that give insight into Pum Dunbar’s creative process while producing her recent series of collages.

  • Article

Why pandemic denial is nothing new

Could today’s Covid-deniers be taking lessons from history? After all, it’s nearly 200 years since frustrations at a cholera-induced lockdown erupted in Sunderland.

All stories (13)

Images

  • Eruption of smallpox on hand
  • Eruption on a child's arm after vaccination
  • Eruption on the leg and foot of an uncertain nature
  • Eruption on the skin appearing nine or ten days after vaccination
  • Eruption of Mount Vesuvius; lava covering dwellings. Gouache painting by Mauton, 1834.
  • Cutaneous eruption after vaccination
  • Hand with bullous eruption
  • Eruption of the face of a young woman who worked making seal skin purses
  • Eruption of the face of a young woman who worked making seal skin purses
  • Skin eruption on the face
All images (220)

Catalogue

All works (552)