Public health heritage and policy: HIV and AIDS in museums and archives

Abstract

In the last five years there has been a resurgence of scholarly research and museum exhibitions on the history of HIV and AIDS. This work has called into question some of the conventions of archiving and interpreting the history of the pandemic. It is increasingly clear that a narrow range of materials have been saved. As historians and curators turn to these holdings for analysis and exhibition, they find they inadequately represent the impact of AIDS across diverse groups as well as the range of local, national, international responses. This essay considers some of the factors that shape collection of the material culture, particularly the heritage of public health, and the consequences for our understanding of lessons from the past.

Pandemics and national pride

“…11 Although exhibitions of such examples are common, they rarely document the impact of any particular campaign among those who remember them. 12 As the Dutch epidemic did not generate a major collecting initiative, historically significant material also appears to have been lost. Examples of valuable artefacts that cannot be located include a scrapbook of photographs and messages from patients, staff, and visitors on one of the first AIDS wards in the country, as well as a handwritten guide to caring for someone with AIDS which was produced by a group looking after their friend and then typed up and distributed in the Dutch buddy system of carers.…”

Van bezorgde zussen tot waardevolle buddy’s. Het informele informatiecircuit tijdens de aidsepidemie in Vlaanderen en Brussel

“…Dat is een vraag die Manon Parry ook al bezig hield en die zij uiteindelijk beantwoordde met een oproep tot meer mondelinge geschiedschrijving; een oproep die ik beantwoordde. 5 Concreet ging ik in gesprek met negentien getuigen uit Vlaanderen en Brussel die door hun diagnose, een diagnose in de dichte omgeving, of door hun werkgerelateerde achtergrond als ervaringsdeskundigen of specialisten gepercipieerd kunnen worden. In die interviews polste ik naar hun persoonlijke ervaringen met informatieverwerving over hiv en aids vanaf de jaren 1980 tot nu.…”