Founded in 1929, we are the oldest academic department of the History of Medicine in the English-speaking world. We are dedicated to scholarship on the histories of medicine, disease, the health sciences, and their relationships to society.

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Upcoming Events

October 12, 2023

Colloquium Event: Madagascar Workshop

The 2023 Annual Meeting of the Madagascar Workshop will be hosted by the Johns Hopkins Medicine, Science, and Humanities Major in conjunction with the Center for Medical Humanities & Social Medicine. The event will be held October 12-14th and will be a hybrid event. For more information, visit https://www.madagascarworkshop.com/  On Thursday, October 12th, time TBA, the event will feature a panel entitled "Medicine in Madagascar Between Social Scientific Analysis and Practical Intervention" as part of the Fall 2023 Colloquium presented by the Program in the History of Science, Medicine, & Technology.
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October 26, 2023
3:00 pm / 4:30 pm

Colloquium Speaker: Aishah Scott

Dr. Aishah Scott of Providence College will present “Trickledown Respectability Politics and HIV/AIDS in Black America,” as part of our Fall 2023 Colloquium presented by the Program in the History of Science, Medicine, & Technology.

Who: Aishah Scott
When: October 26th, 2023 at 3pm
Where: Hybrid: In person in Welch 303 and via Zoom. For more information and to receive pre-circulated papers, contact Marian Robbins at myrobbins@jhmi.edu.
Title: “Trickledown Respectability Politics and HIV/AIDS in Black America”

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Announcements

Background

We are committed to exploring the history of medicine in its broadest sense, both geographically and chronologically; we offer a range of graduate and undergraduate courses on topics such as the History of Chinese Medicine; Colonial Knowledge; Health and Healing in Early Modern England; Darwin, Freud, and Pasteur; and Disease Control in Historical Perspective.

About us

Welch Medical Library Building

The Institute of the History of Medicine is located in the William H. Welch Medical Library, named after the first Chair of the Department of the History of Medicine. In establishing the first Department of the History of Medicine in the English-speaking world, Welch sought to provide a humanistic component to medical education and public health.

Academics

The Department of the History of Medicine trains PhDs in the history of medicine, and teaches in the schools of medicine and public health. We offer courses for undergraduates and graduate students on the main arts and sciences campus of Johns Hopkins University.

Library

The departmental library of the Institute, the Historical Collection is also the resource center for the history of medicine for the Hopkins community, and hosts visiting scholars from the United States and abroad. A research collection covering all aspects of the history of medicine, public health and allied sciences, it contains over 70,000 volumes. A large, comprehensive library of secondary sources accompanies a smaller, but choice collection of rare books, manuscripts, prints, photographs, medals, stamps and objects.

People

Meet our faculty, the largest department of medical historians in the US, staff, current graduate students, alumni, and postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars from around the world.

BHM

The Bulletin of the History of Medicine is the official publication of the Johns Hopkins Institute of the History of Medicine and the American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM) and is published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. A leading journal in its field for more than three quarters of a century, the Bulletin spans the social, cultural, and scientific aspects of the history of medicine worldwide.

CME

The Department of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins, the first department of its type in North America, is proud to introduce new online CME modules that provide a historical perspective on issues of relevance to clinical practice today.