This coming Thursday, The Stone Fort Museum at Stephen F. Austin State University will open the exhibition Misery & Remedy: The Rise and Eradication of Epidemic Diseases in East Texas. Covering six diseases, including smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, Spanish influenza, tuberculosis and polio, the show will feature medical books, artifacts, and tools related to public health from East Texas. It will also make you glad that you live in a post-penicillin world where vaccines have turned what were once terrifying killers into the stuff of quaint museum exhibitions.
The museum will host related programming throughout the run of the exhibition. Melissa Prycer, the Executive Director of Dallas Heritage Village, will lecture on the effects of consumption in 19th century society. Additionally, Dr. Robert Carroll, one of the major lenders to the exhibition, will walk visitors through the show and discuss the included artifacts and their uses.
The exhibition will continue through December 20th.