This website is a collection of images that stem from my research for my book manuscript, “Displaying the Road to Wellness: Public Health Exhibits in the Early Twentieth Century.” This study looks at the history of public presentations of disease prevention to show how exhibits shaped a generation of public health understanding, helped to standardize policy, and left a legacy of privileging the artifact over other forms of educational information in the United States.

In the early twentieth century, exhibits served as critical instruments for disseminating public health information. In particular, exhibits conveyed policy to those who were non literate in English, a common barrier in communicating public health policy to immigrant communities. “Displaying the Road to Wellness” deciphers the use of display by public health professionals to define their profession and circulate information to the general public about public and private responsibilities for disease prevention.