ABOUT THE EXHIBIT

The Lazaretto Project is a non-traditional Master's thesis researched and built by Hannah Spring Pfeifer of Villanova University. Hannah is graduating in May 2022 with an MA in History (Public History and States & Societies concentrations) and a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Management. 

 

Over the summer of 2020, Hannah worked as a Junior Fellow with the Library of Congress' Science, Technology & Business Division. While she focused on American industrialists, Hannah's mentor, Lynn Weinstein, was developing a LibGuide on sanatorium/sanitarium research. Hannah assisted with research and content creation. The work inspired an interest in local historic public health sites, including the Lazaretto. This project is thus driven by Hannah's personal and academic interests in public history, digital humanities, and the history of medicine and technology. 

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While exhibits do not have theses like books and articles do, they are shaped by a central big idea. The big idea for this digital exhibit was based on a goal of connecting the Lazaretto back to the institutions and socials forces that emerged alongside and affected it. Quarantine stations, and the Lazaretto in particular, are rarely acknowledged for their role in history. This is an attempt to recognize a small part of what the Lazaretto and early American medicine 

did to make Philadelphia the city it is today.

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The Lazaretto Project would never have happened if not for the support of the Villanova History Department, including Drs. Whitney Martinko, Andrew Liu, and Judith Giesberg for academic critique and guidance; Franny Murphy and Vicki Sharpless for moral support; and Dr. Signe Fourmy (Last Seen Project & University of Texas, Austin) for giving practical digital history experience and encouragement. To Maya Hartmann (Bucks County Historical Society) and Dr.Jacqueline Beatty (York College of Pennsylvania) for exhibit-building advice and resources. And endless gratitude to Hannah's family, friends, coworkers, and the Villanova History cohort of 2022!