Getting Started

This section contains resources relevant to the historical study of yellow fever in the United States. Helpful search terms and names of relevant people are included as useful jumping off points for beginning research. Related Gumberg Library research guides provide further information and resources.

Helpful Search Terms

Included here are examples of search terms that can be used to identify material relevant to the historical study of yellow fever in the databases listed below and DUQSearch. These are not comprehensive but can serve as inspiration for conducting your own research.

Terms:

Epidemics AND History AND Yellow fever
"Free African Society"
Yellow Fever Commission (U.S.)
Yellow fever--History--Societies, etc.
Yellow fever AND race

Notable Persons:

Jones, Absalom, 1746-1818
Allen, Richard, 1760-1831
Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813
Hamilton, Alexander
Reed, Walter, 1851-1902
Finlay, Carlos J. (Carlos Juan), 1833-1915

Databases for Primary Sources

Here you will find a selection of databases useful for identifying primary sources. See the helpful search terms section below for ideas on where to begin your research. For additional databases, see the full list of Gumberg Library History Databases.

Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window Diverse primary source materials reflecting broad views across American history and culture have been assembled into comprehensive databases. These collections are encyclopedic in scope and allow full Boolean, string and truncated searches.
AM Explorer (formerly Adam Matthew) This link opens in a new window This main portal provides access to millions of pages of primary source collections across the entire portfolio of Adam Matthew Digital, spanning content from the 15th-21st centuries. The individual collections are also listed separately: use the "Vendor/Provider" drop-down menu on the main A-Z list to filter by "Adam Matthew Digital (Sage)" to view all.
American History, 1493-1945 This link opens in a new window This unique collection documents American History from the earliest settlers to the mid-twentieth century. It is sourced from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the finest archives available for the study of American History.
Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window An open access database providing millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country available to all in a one-stop discovery experience.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window Reference guide to the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, covered in the EBSCOhost database "America: History and Life"). Over 2,000 journals published throughout the world are covered; includes a targeted selection of hundreds of journals in the social sciences and humanities.

Databases for Secondary Resources

Here you will find a selection of databases useful for identifying secondary sources. See the helpful search terms section below for ideas on where to begin your research. For additional databases, see the full list of Gumberg Library History Databases.

America: History and Life This link opens in a new window Published since 1964, the definitive bibliographic reference covering the history, culture, area studies, and current affairs literature of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. Content Includes indexing for over 1,800 journals from 1895 to the present; citations and links to books and media reviews; coverage for some titles goes back to the 19th and early 20th centuries.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window A reliable and comprehensive archive of important scholarly journal literature, including searchable and browsable tables of contents and full text articles from both multidisciplinary and discipline-specific journal collections.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window Provides 100% full-text access to over 300 high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from 60 scholarly publishers.
Scopus This link opens in a new window The largest abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources. indexes content from 24,600 active titles and 5,000 publishers which is rigorously vetted and selected by an independent review board, and uses a rich underlying metadata architecture to connect people, published ideas and institutions.

Books and E-Books

Here are some examples of books and e-books that can be found in the Gumberg Library catalog. Use DUQSearch to identify books by keyword, such as the ones suggested below, and narrow your searches using the refine results fields. For more information on using DUQSearch, see the Gumberg Library DUQSearch guide.

Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds

From 1793 to 1805, yellow fever devastated U.S. port cities in a series of terrifying epidemics. The investigation into its origins produced one of the most substantial and innovative outpourings of scientific thought in early American history. But it also led to a heated and divisive debate around the place of science in American society. The debate between "contagionists," who thought the disease was imported, and "localists," who thought it came from domestic sources, reflected contemporary beliefs about God and creation, the capacities of the human mind, and even the appropriate direction of the new nation.

Bring Out Your Dead : The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia In 1793

In 1793 a disastrous plague of yellow fever paralyzed Philadelphia, killing thousands of residents and bringing the nation's capital city to a standstill. In this psychological portrait of a city in terror, J. H. Powell presents a penetrating study of human nature revealing itself. Bring Out Your Dead is an absorbing account, form the original sources, of an infamous tragedy that left its mark on all it touched.

Ship of Death

It is no exaggeration to say that the Hankey, a small British ship that circled the Atlantic in 1792 and 1793, transformed the history of the Atlantic world. This extraordinary book uncovers the long-forgotten story of the Hankey and describes the ship's fateful impact upon people from West Africa to Philadelphia, Haiti to London. Smith links the voyage and its deadly cargo to some of the most significant events of the era--the success of the Haitian slave revolution, Napoleon's decision to sell the Louisiana Territory, a change in the geopolitical situation of the new United States--and spins a riveting tale of unintended consequences and the legacy of slavery that will not die.

The American Plague

Over the course of history, yellow fever has paralyzed governments, halted commerce, quarantined cities, moved the U.S. capital, and altered the outcome of wars. During a single summer in Memphis alone, it cost more lives than the Chicago fire, the San Francisco earthquake, and the Johnstown flood combined. In 1900, the U.S. sent three doctors to Cuba to discover how yellow fever was spread. There, they launched one of history's most controversial human studies. Compelling and terrifying, The American Plague depicts the story of yellow fever and its reign in this country--and in Africa, where even today it strikes thousands every year.

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History of Yellow Fever