Conference on Health and Medicine in North America in the Era of Lewis and Clark

First call for papers:

Conference on Health and Medicine in North America in the Era of Lewis and Clark

The Francis C. Wood Institute of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia is planning a major conference on medicine in the U.S. circa 1800, to be held Thursday evening through Saturday, November 4, 5, and 6, 2004. Co-sponsors will include the American Philosophical Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. The conference is timed to coincide with the opening of a national touring exhibition on the Lewis and Clark expedition at Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences. Another exhibit, “Only One Man Died: Medical Adventures on the Lewis and Clark Trail” is currently on display at the College of Physicians and will remain there through 2006.

This will be a scholarly conference intended to generate papers suitable for publication as a collection. Participants will be expected to submit a 25- to 30-page draft one month in advance of the conference. These papers will not be generally pre-circulated, but will be made available to session commentators. Oral presentations will be limited to summaries of 20 to 25 minutes. To have their papers considered for publication, participants must have the longer version in shape for submission to the volume editor by the time of the conference.

Session topics may include, but are not limited to:

Health and the environment in the expanding United States

The convergence of European, African and Native American medical traditions

Military medicine in new republic

Philadelphia medicine after the yellow fever epidemics

Women as healers and caretakers in the early nineteenth century

Health care on the Lewis and Clark expedition

Medical botany and the American west

Medical theory and medical practice circa 1800

The organization of health care in the early United States

Urban public health at the start of the nineteenth century

We invite proposals on any of these topics, or any other topic pertinent to the general theme of the conference. Submissions of individual papers or of complete sessions are welcome. Proposals are due September 30, 2003, and the conference program will be finalized by the middle of November. Those selected to present papers will receive assistance with travel expenses.

Proposals – of no more than 500 words for individual papers or 1000 words for sessions – may be submitted as email attachments or in paper form. Proposals should be accompanied by CVs of all participants. Proposals and requests for further information should be directed to

Gabriela Zoller

Assistant to the Director

Division of Historical and Museum Services

The College of Physicians of Philadelphia

19 South 22nd Street

Philadelphia PA 19103

215.563.3737 ext. 305

[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>