posted by Amy Hillier

on April 24, 2007

This is the title I'm giving my brief presentation next week at the Master of Public Health retreat. Let me go through a quick list of updates:

1. The on-campus mural is indefinitely on hold. In my conversations with the University Architect, it's clear to me that there is not yet enough support for the idea to succeed. If I wanted, I could prepare a formal proposal for the on-campus design and arts committees, but I don't want to do that prematurely. I'd rather see if we can generate interest and support gradually.

2. Kristina has done some research on Frederick Douglass hospital, the first black hospital in Philadelphia that was started by Nathan Mossel. Mossel was the first black person to receive an MD from Penn. Mossel was permitted to work at Pennsylvania Hospital, but black nurses were not, so he started Frederick Douglass Hospital to allow them an opportunity to train. Rachel Fester, a PhD student in education here at Penn, is studying how young minority students are recruited/trained to be physicians. Together, we hope to write a paper that looks at these issues around training during the time of Du Bois.

3. MYSPACE. Are we kidding? No, we aren't. We want to create an interactive site where students can create profiles of the people who lived in the Old Seventh Ward. Rather than describing themselves, they'd do research, find photos, and use their imagination to create webpages for real historical people. We are considering THEIRSPACE as a name. Eric, our web programmer extraordinaire, thinks he and his team can make this work. What fun.

4. Kelly is tracking down the many original reviews of THE PHILADELPHIA NEGRO. I'm hoping to use those and some other research (such as reviews of the early issues of the American Journal of Sociology, Charles' Booth's research, and the maps made at Hull House) for my paper on the making of The Philadelphia Negro.

5. We'll have a smaller team of people working on the project this summer than last summer, but it should be a great group. Fortunately, we are done collecting the census data, so our priority will be collecting the health data--hospital admissions, births, deaths, and contagious disease.