A poster of pustules: representations of early twentieth century industrial anthrax in Britain James F. Stark * Centre for the History & Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK In the decades around 1900, industrial anthrax attracted significant attention from medical practitioners, legisla- tors and the general public in Britain. Attempts to reduce the incidence of the disease ranged from basic health measures – preventing workmen from eating inside factories and trialling the use of respirators – through to national legislation making disinfection of dangerous materials mandatory. Another effort involved the pro- duction of industrial warning posters (or cautionary notices) which were designed for use in the factory environment. In the case of anthrax, the context in which these notices appeared adds to our understanding of not only the disease itself, but also the relations between those producing such posters and those who encoun- tered them in an industrial setting. ‘Different appearances of anthrax on the skin’ In June 1927 His Majesty’s Stationary Office (HMSO) pub- lished a poster showing examples of various different appearances of anthrax on the skin (see Figure 1). This cautionary notice was designed to be hung in places of work where anthrax was known to pose a risk to the workforce; wool, worsted and horsehair factories, tanneries, and dock warehouses were principal amongst these. The nine images occupied roughly half of the poster, with the lower half being taken up with text, warning the viewer of the dangers which this disease posed. Although one might suppose that the poster would advise the onlooker as to what practical mea- sures they might take in the event of a suspected infection, this is not the case. The potential sufferer is simply instructed (in strident capitals) ‘that a doctor should be consulted at once if there is any suspicion of infection’. Preventive suggestions are likewise limited: ‘washing the hands, the use of a nail brush and keeping the nails short will lessen the chance of contracting Anthrax’. The remain- der of the text was dedicated to explaining how the disease was contracted, where it was most prevalent, and which materials were most likely to harbour the causative organ- ism. Importantly for my purposes here, instructions were given to the individual or firm installing the poster as to how ‘to preserve this Form and prevent fading of the colours’. The appearance of this poster – which was in fact a reprint of the 1916 original – in the late 1920s raises a number of questions as to its production, application and function. Why, for example, did HMSO – the official publisher of government documents – think it necessary to re-issue this poster a full 8 years after what historians have tended to regard as the landmark Anthrax Prevention Act of 1919? 1 The idea that anthrax had by 1927 become something about which British industry was no longer concerned appears to be called into question by the very existence of this poster. The layout and context of the poster, moreover, leads us to further questions: why were paintings of anthrax pustules used rather than photographs? Was there any particular reason for the poster to be published (at greater expense) in colour? What kind of ‘life’ did this object have once it had come off the press and into its intended environment – the factory? 2 Posters before ‘the’ poster By 1927 the industrial cautionary notice was well-estab- lished as a medium through which to alert workmen to the dangers of their respective occupations. The first concerted effort with respect to anthrax was a set of printing regula- tions issued by the Bradford Town Council on 8 August 1884, detailing the newly agreed precautionary measures to lessen the incidence of ‘woolsorters’ disease’ – a form of anthrax peculiar to the town’s wool industry (see Figure 2). These regulations were lengthy, and the locally pro- duced poster (which only covered firms operating within the jurisdiction of Bradford Town Council) had no images by which to alert workers to the external appearance(s) of the disease. The purpose of publishing the regulations as a poster was to raise awareness of the obligations of both employer and employee in the workplace. Mandatory washing and liming of premises, for example, was included amongst these regulations. The absence of images from this particular poster is, however, perhaps to be expected, Feature Endeavour Vol. 35 No.1 *Tel.: +44 0113 246 9601. Stark, J.F. (phljfs@leeds.ac.uk) Available online 21 December 2010 1 The secondary literature has tended to regard this piece of legislation as causing the virtual eradication of anthrax as an industrial disease by the late-1920s. For two examples of this, see: Witkowski, J. and Parish, L. (2002) The story of anthrax from antiquity to the present: a biological weapon of nature and humans. Clinics in Dermatology 20, pp. 336–342; La Force, M. (1978) Woolsorters’ disease in England. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 54(10), pp. 956–963, especially p. 962. For a recent revisionist account which suggests that restriction on imports rather than a specific war on the germs of anthrax was responsible for a gradual reduction in the number of anthrax cases after 1920, see: Mortimer, I. and Melling, J. (2000) ‘The contest between commerce and trade, on the one side, and human life on the other’: British Government Policies for the regulation of anthrax infection and the wool textiles industries, 1880–1939. Textile History 31(2), pp. 222–236. 2 A number of excellent recent works have been produced on the use of images in the history of science. Of particular relevance to this study is the assertion of Jennifer Tucker that ‘the point of the academic study of scientific images is the recognition of their heterogeneity, the different circumstances of their production, and the variety of cultural and social functions they serve’. (Tucker, J. (2006) The historian, the picture, and the archive. Isis 97, pp. 111–120. Anthrax posters in the United States in the early twentieth century receive a passing mention in Richard Swiderski’s recent biography of the disease: Swiderski, R. (2004) Anthrax: A History, McFarland (Jefferson, NC) p. 51. www.sciencedirect.com 0160-9327/$ – see front matter ß 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2010.11.001