Leprosy Stigma

Afternoon Coffee Talk at the NMHM

What: Lecture, "Carville, the Landscape of Stigma," by Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, The National Hansen's Disease Museum

When: Wednesday, August 27, 2:00 p.m.

Where: Russell Auditorium, National Museum of Health and Medicine

Leprosy is known as the "Biblical" disease and has been associated with a stigma that affects the lives of those with leprosy, both physically and socially. Did you know that at one time Coca Cola refused to pick up empty Coke bottles from the National Leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana for fear that contact with the bottles might spread the disease? Join Elizabeth Schexnyder, curator of the National Hansen's Disease Museum, for a discussion of the meaning and significance of the social response to leprosy in the development of the National Leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana. She will describe how the process of "othering" human beings diagnosed with leprosy along with the socio-historical factors affecting the disease stigma shaped the unique landscape--both social and physical--of the National Leprosarium.

Wash Post on leprosy

Sally Squires and her husband John Wilhelm have done an interesting and touching documentary film "Triumph at Carville: A Tale of Leprosy in America" which can be seen at the Museum with a small exhibit on leprosy (aka Hansen's Disease). Today she had an article in the Post about how the disease is still around, but not as dangerous as it has been in the past. See "A Scary Diagnosis Hits Home When a Tiny Rash Turns Out to Be Leprosy, A Teen and Her Community Learn the Modern Reality of Living With the Biblical Disease," By Sally Squires, Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, May 27, 2008; Page HE01. On June 19th, we'll have d a free lecture on Hansen's disease by Wayne M. Meyers of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Dr. Meyers is an expert on the disease, which used to be a major area of research in the AFIP, and we have an oral history with him. Drs. Meyers and Chapman Binford were the main doctors working on it. We have some of Dr. Binford's records:

OHA 114

* Binford Leprosy Material, 1922-1975
* .5 cubic foot, 1 box.
* No finding aid, arranged, inactive, unrestricted.
* Public Health Bulletins, reprints, manuscript articles, journals, and photographs related to leprosy. Includes articles and correspondence by Chapman H. Binford, chief of the AFIP Geographic Pathology department.

Leprosy exhibit opens at museum...

...In coordination with the new PBS film Triumph at Carville (which I saw an earlier preview of and enjoyed a lot). John Wilhelm and Sally Squires did a good job telling the history of Hansen's Disease (the now-preferred term) sufferers and the isolation they were forced into in Carville, Louisiana. Information specifically on the exhibit should eventually be on the Museum's website.