Memory and stigma. Archives of HIV/AIDS
To commemorate December 1st as the International Day of the Fight Against HIV/AIDS, today we will approach three archival experiences that try to recover the memory of the disease from its beginning in 1981 to the present day. First of all we visit the HIV/AIDS Archive of the National Library of Medicine (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland). Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the health crisis, the NLM launched three years ago a virtual tour of the historical collections and related resources they keep. The website offers an extraordinary perspective about the first years of the pandemic, focused mainly on the medic and scientific aspects of the topic. The resources include a video with declarations by Dr. Fauci in 1984, and two virtual exhibitions: Surviving and Thriving: AIDS, Politics and Culture , and Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health . The second proposal is the Philadelphia AIDS Oral History Project . This project is a co...