UnEssay Project in Premodern Medicine – AS.140.105

  1. Home
  2. Undergraduate Courses
  3. UnEssay Project in Premodern Medicine – AS.140.105

In the undergraduate survey of pre-modern medicine (140.105) students had the option of an Unessay, doing a creative project of some kind that demonstrates mastery of some aspect of course material. Submissions displayed here ranged from podcasts to paintings.

Click on preview images, below, to see full projects.

Title card with white text on black background reading "Knowledge Through Time by Taha Ahmedna".
Knowledge Through Time by Taha Ahmedna
Vintage-style newsletter cover titled “Santé et au-delà: The Official Monthly Newsletter of the Medical Faculty of Paris,” dated November 1322, Volume 11; medieval cityscape with Notre Dame at top; sidebar listing sections—A Word from the Dean, News Reporting, Visiting Physician, Astrology Guide—and an introductory message from the dean.
14th Century Newsletter by Ozioma Anyanwu
Handwritten herbal sheet titled “Aquilegia Formosa” describing Western/Scarlet Columbine’s appearance, flowering season, purported heart-healing uses, a wine infusion with petals, a warning that yellow seeds are poisonous, and note to use fresh; a watercolor drawing of the red-and-yellow flower sits in the bottom right corner.
Herbal Medicine Book by Rebecca Avrutin
Map of Europe and the Mediterranean with hex paths linking cities—London, Paris, Cologne, Vienna, Constantinople, Rome, Salerno, Athens, Alexandria, Tripoli, Toledo, and Baghdad—titled “-isms!”.
BoardGame(-isms!) by Oliver del Rosario
Collage titled “Galen Through Time” on a purple background, featuring a diagram of the four humors, two classical portrait cutouts, and the creator’s name, Annabelle Headley.
Galen Through Time by Annabelle Headley
Apothecary broadside titled “Roxy’s Apothecary—Highest Quality Since 1700,” advertising the anodyne necklace for teething, white poppy opium from Turkey, Turlington’s Balsam of Life, red coral from Naples, and guaiacum for the “French disease,” plus a note about new red and yellow ochre pigments.
Apothecary Advertisement by Roxy Karrer
Ornate parchment-style title card reading “Saint Mary Magdalene Leper Hospital,” with subtitle “Founded in 1175, Chichester, England” and credit “By Christin Le.”
Leper Hosptial Guide by Christin Le
Illustrated five-panel timeline of medical history: a pregnant figure at an Asklepion in Ancient Greece; a scholar near the Library of Alexandria; a healer in medieval Baghdad with herbs; a European Middle Ages scene with a body on a table; and Vesalius’s dissection in Padua.
Patient Painting by Alexandra Lee
Illustrated table setting labeled “Midwives,” with a chalice bearing the female symbol, a pitcher of blue hydrangeas, utensils on napkins, a bowl on stacked plates, and background panels of historical anatomical drawings of pregnancy.
Un-Essay History Project by Samantha Lee
MP3 icon with a blue musical 8th note.
Interview with Vesalius by Matt Mullner
Illustrated poster titled “Historia Anatomica Inventionis,” explaining that corpse dissection was taboo in Ancient Greece, yet Greeks laid foundations of anatomy; animals like pigs and Barbary apes were used as surrogate dissection models. The poster illustrates a greek landscape, a dead man, a barbary ape, and a pig mid0dissection.
The History of Anatomical Inventions via Grave Robbing by Tenza Nazur
Front page of “The Patient’s Gazette,” dated December 5, 1666, featuring an article titled “Valentine Greatrakes: What’s Next?” with a portrait engraving and a right-side advertisement for apothecary Mark Bramfield offering herbs, pastes, and medicinal cures.
The Patient's Gazette by Tobi Park
Green decorative title card reading “Alena, Eurdora and the Miracle of Incubation.”
Alena, Eudora and the Miracle of Intuabation by Shanelle Quinn
Hand-drawn poster titled “An Apothecary’s Guide to New World Medicine” with a world map and notes on remedies: guaiacum, sarsaparilla, jalap, sassafras from the Americas; cinnamon and ginger from India; moxibustion from China; side note warning of yaws and syphilis origins; small sketches of plants and tools.
An Apothecary's Guide to New World Medicine by Ritwik Raj
Document titled “Decree from the Health Board of Seville, Kingdom of Spain… on general voyage to the New World,” listing required public health team: a physician, a public health officer (morber), and a corpse examiner.
What If The Columbian Exhange Went Differently Health Board Guidelines by Anthony Rodriguez
“Al-Andalus: Medicine, Translation, and Learning in Islamicate Spain” title graphic with a gold mosque silhouette on a brown patterned background.
Al-Andalus by Amaan Siddiqui
Title slide on parchment-style background reading “Choose Your Own Adventure: Medical Marketplace” by Breanna Soldatelli.
Choose Your Adventure by Breanna Soldatelli
Colorful classroom poster titled “Causes of Disease,” arranged by periods—Classical Antiquity, Middle Ages, Early Modern—combining prints of historical figures and ailments with humoral theory charts (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile) and images of skeletal remains and medical scenes.
Hand-drawn map on colored paper showing Europe, Africa, and Asia with dashed routes across the Atlantic and Mediterranean; labels note “Spanish disease,” “French disease,” “Neapolitan disease,” and “Great Pox,” with small ship doodles and seas marked.

Causes of Disease Collage by Tionna Tolefree

Illustrated letter page titled “Compilation of Dr. Spencer Whittington’s letters,” with pencil drawings of sailing ships and a harbor scene. Handwritten entry dated September 17, 1671 begins “Thomas, you must be wondering how my journey to Montpelier has been overseas...” describing a difficult voyage to France and plans to study medicine.
Whittington Letters by Natalia Tong
Black‑and‑white comic page titled as a cosmic courtroom trial of a doctor; panels show a judge and prosecutors labeled Hippocrates, Galen, Rhazes, and Avicenna, with speech bubbles accusing “crimes against medicine” and asking, “How do you plead?”
Paracelsus trial comic by Ruchik Trivedi
Vintage-style world map titled “The Work of Monardes” by Ayub Wardere, showing “The New World” and “The Old World” with illustrated sailing ships, sea creatures, and a compass rose.
The Work of Monarders by Ayub Wardere
MP3 icon with a blue musical 8th note.
Podcast by Cali Wilson

Episode Description