The New York Academy of Medicine is pleased to announce the second lecture in its series "Race, Ethnicity, and Health in Twentieth-Century America," from NYAM's Section on the History of Medicine and Public Health, with support from the New York Council for the Humanities.

In 1922, Dr. Margaret Chung (1889 1959) established one of the first western medical clinics in San Francisco Chinatown, then the largest Chinese neighborhood in the United States. She was the first Chinese American woman to attempt to practice in the community, which was in the midst of a baby boom. Although Chung faced various obstacles in establishing a Chinese-American clientele, especially among female residents, she had much greater success in attracting white tourists to her clinic. Chung's professional career in San Francisco Chinatown illuminates the role of western medicine in breaking down as well as reinforcing social boundaries in relation to race, gender, and sexuality.

Judy Tzu Chun Wu is an assistant professor of History at Ohio State University, where she teaches courses on U.S., Women's, Asian American, and Immigration Histories. Her first book, Doctor Mom Chung of the Fair Haired Bastards: The Life of a Wartime Celebrity, was recently published by the University of California Press.

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"Race, Ethnicity, and Health in Twentieth-Century America" explores the contrasts in health conditions across racial and ethic lines--past and present, as well as the experience of immigrant medical professionals, and the geopolitics of race, health and empire.

The remaining lectures in the series are:
Tuesday, April 12
Paul Sutter, University of Georgia
"Pulling the Teeth of the Tropics: Disease, Race, and Nature during the American Construction of the Panama Canal"
American efforts to reduce disease during the construction of the Panama Canal demonstrate how key components of racial and environmental thinking intersected in American sanitary policy.

Thursday, April 21
The John K. Lattimer Lecture
Howard Markel, University of Michigan
"When Germs Travel: Epidemics and Immigrants in the 20th Century"
The series concludes with an examination of America's current attempts to isolate ourselves from "immigrant microbes," and a suggestion for a globally-funded public health program that could stop the spread of epidemics, help eradicate certain diseases, and protect us all.

These events are free and open to the public. CME credit is available. For more information about NYAM programs in the history of medicine, visit our website (see the web address provided in the contact information, below), write history@nyam.org or call Christian Warren at the following telephone number.

The Academy's Rare Book Room was recently featured in the New York Times. To read a press release, with a link to the article, visit http://www.nyam.org/news/2258.html .

Historical programs at NYAM are supported by the Friends of the Rare Book Room. Please join the Friends! Download a membership form at http://www.nyam.org/initiatives/docs/FRBR_Renewal.pdf .

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