An Iconography of Contagion: 20th Century Posters and the Visual
Representation of Infectious Disease “About 100 years ago,
public health took a visual turn”, says exhibition curator and
medical historian Michael Sappol. “In an era of devastating
epidemic and endemic infectious disease, health professionals
began to organise coordinated campaigns that sought to mobilise
public action through eye-catching wall posters, illustrated
pamphlets, motion pictures, and glass slide projectors.” An
Iconography of Contagion displays a small, but potent selection
of 22 posters produced between about 1926 and 1990 from the USA,
Europe, Africa, and China. The earliest poster shown, a French
colour lithograph from 1926, depicts Death watching a three
horse race, in which Tuberculosis (150 000 deaths per annum)
narrowly beats Syphilis (140 000), with Cancer (40 000) lagging
in third place. Issued by the Ligue National Française contre le
Péril Vénérien, it simply highlights annual mortality
statistics. Other posters attempt