4/12 The medical masks we use today weren’t originally invented for epidemics or hospital infections — they were created to protect workers in dusty factories!

Developed massively in the 19th C, but rarely worn until the 1920s.

Factory worker in Pittsburgh, 1958 (Photo by James Blair)

Violet Affleck’s impassioned call at #UNGA80 for masking and clean #indoorair is the latest episode in the long —and always controversial— history of masks. To explore the earlier chapters and better understand what’s happening today, check out our book!
tinyurl.com/579pz264

3/12 - During Covid-19, men refused to wear masks more often than women. Already in the 19th c., men objected to protective masks—because real men know no fear!

Fearless Napoleon touches a plague victim with his face uncovered. His frightened marshal holds a cloth to his mouth (A.-J. Gros, 1804).

2/12 - When we look at images of people with cloths over their faces during past epidemics, we think of modern filtering masks.

In fact, these pieces of cloths were perfuming devices, soaked in vinegar, when odors caused diseases!

Bas-relief, 12th century, Cathedral of Basel, CH.

#histstm

Projit Mukharji opens his lecture at #EAHMH25 with the following point: 1/3 of all human beings live either in China or India. Yet, most scholarship in #histmed is about Western biomedicine.

@eahmh.bsky.social

Dora Vargha opening EAHMH 2025 in Berlin! @eahmh.bsky.social

#EAHMH25 #histmed

1/12 - In our book, The Mask, we show 58 striking images.

Remember those depictions of plague doctors wearing a beaked mask? Such visual elements were common in the 17th C and were always satirical.

Here is one by F. Bertelli, from Il Carnevale Italiano…1642 (The Met, NY).

tinyurl.com/uvzjs9py

Our book is out! The surprising history of masks worn by plague doctors, factory workers, trench soldier, hospital nurses, and the rest of us.

yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

@yalepress.bsky.social
@yalebooks.bsky.socuial

My latest find in the archives of the Academy of Medicine in Paris. Trying to figure out when this mask was made and if it was ever used (hint: it does not smell like vinegar).
#histSTM #histmed