Topical again: exhibition on tuberculosis
Stella Fatović-Ferenčić – Darija Hofgräf
From the state to the public: Tuberculosis in the funds of the Croatian State Archives and the Division of the History of Medical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Zagreb: Croatian State Archives, 2014
Foreword
With the exhibition From the State to the Public: Tuberculosis in the Funds of the Croatian State Archives and the Division of the History of Medical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, we wanted to show the range of efforts related to the fight against tuberculosis in continental Croatia. It is the result of cooperation between the Division of the History of Medical Sciences of the Institute of History and Philosophy of Science of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Croatian State Archives. In both institutions, there are valuable, but also visually interesting documents, photographs, health education messages and promotional films used in campaigns to combat tuberculosis. A number of exhibited documents are part of the material of the Croatian State Archives, especially the administration and public services. In addition to archival material, various statistical publications available in the HDA Library, films from the Croatian Film Archive, as well as photographs from the HDA Photo Laboratory are on display. It is a valuable material that reveals the mechanisms of tuberculosis control at the level of the state, profession and the general public in the period from the end of the 19th and during the first half of the 20th century. Part of the exhibits of this exhibition, especially photographs and posters, are today kept in the Ćepulić Collection in the Division of the History of Medical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. This exhibition is inspired by the role and work of Vladimir Ćepulić (1891-1964), head of the tuberculosis department of the Zagreb Foundation, founder of the first antituberculosis dispensary in Croatia, later the Institute of Tuberculosis and its director, the first teacher of pneumophthisiology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Zagreb. Assistant and President of the Society for the Fight Against Tuberculosis. It is also dedicated to the 50th anniversary of his death and the 80th anniversary of the Institute of Tuberculosis in Zagreb, established by a decision of the Ministry of Public Health in 1934. With the establishment of the Institute, for the first time in our region, the preventive and clinical aspects of the fight against tuberculosis were united in a single institution. Even today, the fight against tuberculosis is not a story with a happy ending. Tuberculosis is still present in the population of the whole world, and its cause is a cunning biological agent that gladly eludes therapy. We therefore believe that this exhibition will bring closer to the general public all the attempts and efforts of our predecessors, who together made the authorities aware that the fight against every disease is a complex system that requires the efforts of the whole community – from the state to the general public. The exhibition was realized under the auspices of the Department of Medical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Illustration: Poster We can get tuberculosis like this. Don’t spit on the floor / spit in the spittoon (OPMZ HAZU)
The full catalog is available at the link:
https://bib.irb.hr/datoteka/695137.Od_drave_do_javnosti_katalog.pdf
