The Tuberculosis Specimen

X.1.3: The Image Data Set

Introduction

Specimen Studies
0.1.1 | 0.1.2 | 0.1.3 | 0.1.4 | 0.1.5
Methods
0.2.1 | 0.2.2
The Structure of this Dissertation
0.3.1

Tuberculosis' Visual Culture

Visual Practices in Medical Culture
1.1.1 | 1.1.2 | 1.1.3
Seeing and Settling in the Sanatorium Movement
1.2.1 | 1.2.2 | 1.2.3 | 1.2.4 | 1.2.5
Teaching Public Health
1.3.1 | 1.3.2 | 1.3.3 | 1.3.4 | 1.3.5
Representing Doctors in Tuberculous Contexts
1.4.1 | 1.4.2

Using Human Specimens in the Study of Tuberculosis

Seeing Disease in Methyl Violet
2.1.1 | 2.1.2 | 2.1.3 | 2.1.4
Case Histories
2.2.1 | 2.2.2 | 2.2.3 | 2.2.4
Visceral Processes
2.3.1 | 2.3.2
Relation
2.4.1 | 2.4.2 | 2.4.3

Arts-Based Inquiry

Introduction
3.1.1 | 3.1.2 | 3.1.3 | 3.1.4
Terminal Imaginaries & Tuberculous Imaginaries
3.2.1 | 3.2.2 | 3.2.3 | 3.2.4 | 3.2.5 | 3.2.6
Dermographic Opacities
3.3.1 | 3.3.2 | 3.3.3 | 3.3.4
Tactical Pretensions
3.4.1 | 3.4.2 | 3.4.3

Designing Opacity

A Shift towards the Anticolonial
4.1.1 | 4.1.2 | 4.1.3 | 4.1.4
Refusals and Opacities
4.2.1 | 4.2.2 | 4.2.3 | 4.2.4
Digital and Ethical Workflows
4.3.1 | 4.3.2 | 4.3.3 | 4.3.4 | 4.3.5
Conclusion
4.4.1

Coda

Prometheus Undone
5.1.1 | 5.1.2 | 5.1.3 | 5.1.4

Appendix

The Tuberculosis Corpus
X.1.1 | X.1.2 | X.1.3
Web Design
X.2.1 | X.2.2 | X.2.3 | X.2.4
Installation Materials
X.3.1 | X.3.2 | X.3.3

Index

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The image dataset was developed as a way to compile and understand the visual material throughout the entire tuberculosis corpus (X.1.1; X.1.2). As of the completion of the dissertation, 3981 unique images were described and entered into the dataset, accounting for a little less than half of the books in the full corpus. The dataset was developed by Sean Purcell with the help of data entry specialists Xavier Daniels and Lauren Sweany.

The dataset was developed for future researchers interested in the history of medicine and the digital health humanities. The creation of the spreadsheet was valuable because it afforded a detailed examination of each image in the corpus, which in turn provided the contextual information necessary for the first and second chapters (0.2.1).

The protocol for creating the dataset is detailed in the next section (X.1.4). The goal was to describe the type of image—if it was a photograph, a graphic/illustration, or an x-ray—and to provide some overarching descriptors about what was imaged—some examples include describing if the image was pathological (2.2.2); architectural (1.2.3; 1.2.5); an advertisement; a museum exhibit, or a doctor’s portrait (1.4.1).

Some images were included in the dataset but otherwise removed from the larger collection of images because they depicted children in vulnerable positions. Those all have the tag of explicit. I chose to remove those images early in the process of developing the image corpus, so they did not have a major influence on some of the observations made elsewhere in this dissertation.


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TuberculosisSpecimen
The Tuberculosis Specimen

Sean Purcell

This dissertation examines the ways human subjects were turned into research objects as part of the war against tuberculosis.

Sean Purcell,2023 - 2025. Community-Archive Jekyll Theme by Kalani Craig is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Framework: Foundation 6.