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  • Article

The colonist who faced the blue terror

India, 1857. In a British enclave, Katherine Bartrum watches her friend, and then her family, succumb to the deadly cholera.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Article

Designing death in the virtual city

Danger and death are fun when they’re virtual – and when they incorporate realistic elements. Now the tables are turned, as urban planners learn from game environments.

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Images

  • Cholera map showing intensity of cholera attack in sections
  • Remedies for cholera, 1832
  • Broadsheet warning about Indian cholera 1831
  • John Bull defending Britain against the invasion of cholera; comparing the Reform Bill to the cholera epidemic. Coloured lithograph, c. 1832.
  • John Bull defending Britain against the invasion of cholera; comparing the Reform Bill to the cholera epidemic. Coloured lithograph, c. 1832.
  • Dr Challice, How to avoid the cholera
  • WMS 3339, For cholera: '30 drops of laudanum
  • Protective inoculation against cholera / by W.M. Haffkine.
  • C16 Chinese woodcut: Daoyin technique for cholera
  • A man absurdly well-prepared for the cholera epidemic of 1832; representing the overabundance of questionable remedies and protections against cholera. Watercolour, c. 1832.
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