UAB lecture to focus on black Civil War soldiers’ health

Margaret Humphreys, M.D., Ph.D., is a specialist in the history of science and medicine.

The health and well-being of the black soldier during the Civil War is the topic of the Reynolds Historical Lecture Series at noon Thursday, April 25, 2013. Margaret Humphreys, M.D., Ph.D., the Josiah Charles Trent Professor  in the History of Medicine at Duke University and the author of  “Intensely Human: The Health of the Black Soldier in the American Civil War”, will present the lecture.

A specialist in the history of science and medicine, Humphreys has focused her research and publications primarily on infectious disease in the U.S. and the American south, while her current research explores the history of medicine during the American Civil War. Humphreys has also published on the history of diabetes, public health ethics and colonial medicine.

Her newest book, “Intensely Human: The Health of Black Soldiers in the American Civil War”, was published in early 2008 by Johns Hopkins University Press. She is now at work on The Civil War and American Medicine, also under contract at Johns Hopkins Press. In addition to her own research, she is currently editor in chief of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences.

UAB Historical Collections holds a number of items connected to the Civil War, including a medical chest used by an army surgeon and the diary of hospital steward Spencer Bonsall, which chronicles everyday life in an army field hospital.

The lecture will be held at noon Thursday, April 25, 2013, in the Edge of Chaos, fourth floor of the Lister Hill Library, 1700 University Blvd. It is free and open to the public.