Nature's Sanitarium: Health and the Transformation of the Southwest, 1850-1940
My dissertation explores ideas of health and Southwestern landscapes from the 1850s to the 1940s. It rests at the intersection of environmental history, history of science and medicine, and U.S. Western history and draws upon theories of the body, medicine, and science in colonial settings. It foregrounds the discourses of health Anglo migrants used to understand the landscapes they encountered and explores the ways in which perceptions of healthfulness informed the remaking of regional identity, ethnic and racial identity, and social structures in the Southwest.
My research has taken me to a number of archives and research libraries across the country.
Many thanks to all of the archivists and librarians at:
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico
Health Sciences Library and Infomatics Center, University of New Mexico
Silver City Museum, Silver City, New Mexico
The Huntington Library, San Marino, California
The Southwest Museum of the American Indian, Los Angeles, California
The Wisconsin Historical Society Library and Archives, Madison, Wisconsin
My project explores climatology, health seekers, health travelers, railroad promotion of the region, sanitoriums and sanitariums, and schools and summer camps for unhealthy youth.
