Please visit our website at BSHM.org.uk Our Next Congress will be - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

To Join the BSHM as and individual member

• r an organisation

Please visit our website at BSHM.org.uk Our Next Congress will be in Bristol from 11-14 September 2019 We hope to see you there.

Leprosy postal items from a private collection

William Dibb DHMSA Dr.Dibb@gmail.com

Private collection of postal items related to Infection

I have collected postal and other paper Infection subject items for many years. These include stamps, postcards. correspondence such as autographed

• letters. The collection contains autographed correspondence of every

Nobel prize winner within the field of Infection plus many others. There are many hundred items in the collection which are all scanned. The images are available for interested researchers if you email me. For this presentation, I have selected Leprosy as the theme and present some images from the collection. Use of the term “leper” was common but nowadays is somewhat derogatory and stigmatising.

Commemorative stamps for discovery of Leprosy

• bacillus. Gerhard Armauer Hansen of Norway

Raoul Follereau leprosy advocate philanthropist. Princess Diana commemorative cover signed by Head of The Leprosy Mission. She was Patron.

Father Damien of Belgium and Molokai leper colony in Hawaii. Patron saint of

• lepers. Treated

them with extreme compassion and contracted leprosy

• himself. Belgian

stamp.

Postcard Hawaii with explanatory text

Egypt 1938 Leprosy Congress commemorative. Plant illustrated is Hydnocarpus which was used in traditional medicine for treatment of leprosy.

Slogans were frequently used on envelopes to promote health. Here are two on leprosy.

Letter 1898 from Robben Island, South Africa which was then a leper colony run by foreign nuns. The leper church there had no pews as lepers were only allowed to stand and was restricted to males.

Postcard of lepers outside the walls of Jerusalem

Postcard depicting lepers in Madagascar

• Postcard. Arrival of the leprosy nuns at the Leper Asylum in
• Ceylon. Such images helped in fundraising at home.

• Postcard. Leper Chapel, Cambridge which has an interesting history.

Leprosy gradually became rare in Northern Europe about 500 years ago but was common before that.

Publication on Leprosy bacillus by Hansen. Dedication in Hansens handwriting to colleague. Verified by Hansen archives in Bergen, Norway.