Over a century and a half ago the Tewksbury Hospital was established in Tewksbury, Mass., as an almshouse to accommodate an influx of impoverished immigrants settling in the commonwealth. Today it not only operates as a treatment facility for people with mental illness and chronic medical conditions, but it also houses the Massachusetts Public Health Museum, which students from the Boston University School of Public Health visited Friday, October 16 to learn about local history in their field of study.
The tour, organized by the BUSPH Office of Student Services, was attended by forty students and some faculty and staff from the School. The museum features exhibits on pioneering leaders in public health, historical public health campaigns, a visual chronicle of the hospital, and the many types of "patent medicines" used throughout the years to cure ailments from jaundice to baldness. Hosting the group was Alfred DeMaria, medical director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control and state epidemiologist at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, who sits on the museum's board of directors. DeMaria, who personally invited BUSPH students to visit the museum, also helped guide the tour.
To learn more about the museum and opportunities for volunteering, visit the Public Health Museum website.
Submitted by Michelle Salzman
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Photos from the outing were taken by BUSPH student Giac Nguyen.
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Boston University School of Public Health 
