Picturing Pandemics: From the Distant Past to the Recent Present

Throughout history and across cultures, art has played a fundamental role in addressing infectious diseases and their effects on individuals and society. The Museum’s recent exhibition States of Health: Visualizing Illness and Healing examined eighty works of globe-spanning art that collectively illuminate the role art plays in shaping our perceptions and experiences of illness and healing. Bryan Just, Peter Jay Sharp, Class of 1952, Curator and Lecturer in the Art of the Ancient Americas; Laura Giles, Heather and Paul G. Haaga Jr., Class of 1970, Curator of Prints and Drawings; Veronica White, Curator of Academic Programs; and Robbie LeDesma, a Princeton graduate student in Molecular Biology, as they discuss objects in the Museum’s collections related to pandemics, ranging from the ancient Americas to contemporary times.