Boston's Holistic Past: A Walking Tour
What can we learn from uncovering a
neighborhood’s forgotten healthcare past?
Boston is well recognized as world-class center for
conventional medical research, education and clinical practice.
But what many popular histories of medicine neglect to tell is
how, a century ago, allopathic medical doctors were only one of many
healing modalities on offer to the public, among them homeopathy,
naturopathy, Christian Science treatment, and herbal medicine.
I propose developing, for both medical audiences
and the general public, an educational walking tour of
Boston’s historic South End, home of the once homeopathic
Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Homeopathic
Hospital (now known as Boston Medical Center).
We will observe architectural evidence of these two
institutions’ homeopathic beginnings, seek out the site of a former
pharmacy, and note the homes of doctors and spiritual healers of the
era. By
encountering this medical neighborhood's holistic past, we hope to
better understand present-day healthcare and issues in integrative
medicine.
What do you think? Email me your comments, outrages, funding.
2009 Karlo Berger. Some rights reserved. Website Design by Solid Uncoated.
Thanks to Hannah Burr, Kristin Granli, and Jim Kelly.