My Mother's Polio: Australian Experiences of Poliomyelitis, 1950s to 1960s. This project will reveal the health and illness experience of poliomyelitis (polio) in Australia in the mid-twentieth centur

Description

My Mother's Polio: Australian Experiences of Poliomyelitis, 1950s to 1960s. This project will reveal the health and illness experience of poliomyelitis (polio) in Australia in the mid-twentieth century, especially for families, and with attention to regional histories. Polio’s grim history remains largely hidden from narratives of Australian life in the postwar period. This research aims to model historical research into the common and divergent experiences of illness by using collections of oral memories of polio alongside archival records such as welfare organisational records, published and unpublished memoir, fiction, and medical writing. Drawing valuable connections between cultural and historical collections held in libraries, archives, and museums, it will raise awareness of the public memory of polio.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 4303 - Historical Studies. Lead: Prof Catharine Coleborne