April 2021 marks the three hundredth anniversary of what is widely celebrated as the first inoculation in Britain, inspired and publicised by aristocrat, writer and poet Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. However, this is just one of countless histories of a global practice recorded in China, India, Turkey and parts of Africa.
In this online event Sanjoy Bhattacharya, Helen Esfandiary and Sylvia Valentine will explore the origins of inoculation and its subsequent introduction and popularisation in British society. The event will be hosted by Gareth Williams, author of Angel of Death: the story of smallpox.
Sanjoy Bhattacharya is Professor in the History of Medicine, Director of the Centre for Global Health Histories and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Health Histories at University of York.
Helen Esfandiary is a final year PhD student at King’s College London. Her thesis ‘Maternal Perspectives on rearing healthy, hardy, and functioning bodies in elite Georgian society’ is a reappraisal of domestic childcare and medicine in this period.
Sylvia Valentine is a PhD candidate with the University of Dundee. After retiring from a career in the not-for-profit sector, she enrolled with the Centre for Archive and Information Studies at Dundee, graduating with an M. Litt in Family and Local History in 2016. Her Masters dissertation The Guardian’s Revolt considered the events in a Yorkshire town which lead to members of the Board of Guardians of the Poor being jailed for failing to enforce the compulsory vaccination legislation in the 1870s. Her curiosity about the lack of any evidence of similar events in Scotland led her to return to study and to research Opposition to Compulsory Vaccination in Scotland 1864 – 1918. Her interest in Charles Maitland arose as a result of reading about the history of smallpox. Being a part-time genealogist, she is also interested in Maitland the man, who was he, how was he appointed as surgeon to the Wortley Montagu household in Turkey. Professor Anita Guerrini described Maitland as ‘…a candidate for the most important figure not to appear in the ODNB.’
Gareth Williams is Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in English at University of Bristol. Gareth qualified in medicine in 1977 and, after training in London and Geneva, he built up an internationally recognised research group in diabetes and obesity in Liverpool. In 2003, he was appointed Dean of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Bristol. He has produced 200 scientific papers and written or edited over 20 medical textbooks, including the prize-winning Textbook of Diabetes. His books for general readers are Angel of Death: the story of smallpox (shortlisted for the Wellcome Medical Book Prize 2010), Paralysed with Fear: the story of polio (2013), A Monstrous Commotion: the mysteries of Loch Ness (2015), and Unravelling the Double Helix: the lost heroes of DNA (2019).
This is one of a series of Jenner Conversations organised by Dr Jenner's House, Museum and Garden. Just as Edward Jenner gained inspiration for his work by connecting different disciplines, we now want to bring together thinkers with different insights and perspectives to discuss how we might face today's challenges. Join in the discussions at #JennerConversations.
Running time: 60 minutes
This is an online event and will be hosted on Zoom, please refer to their privacy policy before registering for this event. You will be emailed a link with instructions on how to join the event nearer the time. Automatic live subtitling will be available.
19:30 BST (for your local time zone, please click here)