Intermingling of the Old and New: The Formation of Various German-American Medical Culture in Colonial and Early America, 1730-1820

My dissertation explores educated medical practice within the wider landscape of healing in German-speaking communities in colonial and early America (c. 1730-1820) rather than treating medicine as the domain of elite, university-trained men. Centered on Pennsylvania and specific sites in the South, this study argues that “German-American” medicine was made in practice. In particular, eighteenth-century Pennsylvania was home to German communities and a bustling print culture providing valuable insights into their social, cultural, and political activities. Whereas Germans in Europe were more accustomed to a structured system of medical care, Germans in North America found themselves in a strange, new land with both new remedies and new local diseases. As there was little trained medical assistance in the colonies, Germans resorted to medical books and recipes brought from home. As such, there was an intermingling of both untrained and trained laymen, women, clergy, and physicians who provided medical care from transatlantic prescriptions and local ecologies in German communities in colonial America. My project serves to examine the emergence of “German-American” medical practices and networks that integrated new knowledge of their local surroundings with knowledge utilized back home.