The following is the sixth in a series of inside looks at the current exhibition in Princeton University Library’s Ellen and Leonard Milberg Gallery in Firestone Library: “The Most Formidable Weapon Against Errors: The Sid Lapidus ’59 Collection & the Age of Reason.” 

Curated by Steven A. Knowlton, Librarian for History and African American Studies, the exhibition celebrates the collecting achievements of Sid Lapidus, Class of 1959, who has devoted many years to the acquisition of rare books that trace the emergence of Enlightenment ideas and their influence on politics, medicine, and society, creating a powerful tool for understanding the ideas that have shaped modern American society. 

Medicine in the Age of Enlightenment was a mixture of supposition, superstition, and observation. Many doctors embraced the scientific method, but others persisted in medieval beliefs, such as the “miasma theory” that disease is caused by “bad air.”

The Lapidus collection includes works on disease and medicine, with a particular focus on the epidemic of yellow fever that struck the United States in 1793. Many of them are at the New York University Health Sciences Library. 

(Image, right) Noah Webster (1758–1843), “A Collection of Papers on the Subject of Bilious Fevers, Prevalent in the United States for a Few Years Past” (New York: Printed by Hopkins, Webb and Co., 1796). NYU Health Sciences Library.

Noah Webster began the study of epidemiology in the United States. He deduced the fact that stagnant water is associated with the spread of disease—but also asserts that foul air is a factor in contagion.
 

Yellow fever is a mosquito-borne fatal infectious disease which occurred in epidemics in the 18th and 19th centuries. The illustrations reproduced here demonstrate the progression of the disease, which starts with flu-like symptoms and progresses to abdominal pain and bleeding from the mouth, nose, eyes, and gastrointestinal tract.

The exhibition is open through June 8, 2025 at the Milberg Gallery in Firestone Library. Please visit the website to view the gallery’s opening hours and for information about public tours and how to visit.