Sick: Four Centuries of Illness and Health in Brooklyn

FAIN: GE-250080-16

Brooklyn Historical Society (Brooklyn, NY 11201-2711)
Julie Golia (Project Director: January 2016 to November 2017)

Planning for a permanent exhibition about the history of public health in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) seeks a $75,000 NEH Planning Grant to support concept design, formative evaluation, research, and scholarly honoraria for its newest public history project, Sick: Four Centuries of Illness and Health in Brooklyn. Through stories of diseases, health practitioners, grassroots organizations, activists, and everyday Brooklynites, the project will reveal to diverse audiences that conceptions of illness and health are a manifestation of not just biology, but beliefs, institutions, and identity. Comprised of a long-term exhibition; robust public programming, partnerships, and health advocacy outreach; educational curricula and programs; and a dynamic, content-rich website, Sick will use Brooklyn’s rich history to show how concepts of illness and wellness have transformed over 400 years, and allow museumgoers to draw salient connections between historical beliefs about health and those beliefs shaping their world today.