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The Jail and Marine Hospital in Charleston. From "Ballou's Pictorial Drawing Room Companion," 1857. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
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“C” is for Charleston Poorhouse and Hospital. In 1768, the Commons House of Assembly authorized the building of a Poorhouse and Hospital to care for Charleston’s growing population of paupers...
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“M” is for Medical University of South Carolina. At the request of the Medical Society of South Carolina, the General Assembly established the Medical College of South Carolina. It opened in 1824 as a...
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Endemic disease in 19th century South Carolina, and the general primitiveness of medical knowledge, led to high death rates. Here is Richard Furman's recipe for pills to cure dysentery: "A Recipe for...
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Many of the endemic diseases that had killed children and young adults were gradually eliminated through better sanitation and medical immunization by the mid-20th century, but others remained. Here...
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Hookworm was a serious medical problem for the rural poor in South Carolina. The parasite infected individuals who picked it up through barefoot contact in infested soil; open-backed privies helped...
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African herbal medicine traditions remained an important part of health care practices in the slave communities. Even after the war, when the Freedman's Bureau and northern educators tried to teach...
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James B. Edwards was a dentist before he was elected as the first post-Reconstruction Republican Governor of South Carolina in 1974 (see Inauguration Of James B. Edwards). At the end of his term as...
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The contents of a physician's black bag are spread out in the medical supply room in Beaufort when the Red Cross set up emergency relief headquarters after a devastating hurricane in 1892. Courtesy of...
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The Medical College of South Carolina, postcard view in 1909. Physicians in Charleston organized a Medical Society of South Carolina in 1789, and the organization became an important promoter of many...