National Museum of American History

Smithsonian Institution

Washington, D.C. 20560-0627

 

ottk@nmah.si.edu

Research Interests

History of the body, disability, ethnic and folk medicine, integrative and alternative medicine, ophthalmology, plastic surgery and dermatology, prosthetics and rehabilitation, sexuality; visual and material culture, ephemera

Current Research Projects

History of disability; history of universal design, historical use of scarapbooks, history of prosthetics (especially artificial eyes)

Current or Projected Exhibits

History of medicine; history of the disability rights movement (on exhibit 7/2000-7/2001), history of disability

Recent Publications

Fevered Lives, Tuberculosis in American Culture Since 1870 (Harvard, 1996); Artificial Parts and Practical Lives, The Modern History of Prosthetics (co-editor, forthcoming, New York University Press)