Stuff You Missed in History Class   /     Pellagra, Part 1

The pellagra epidemic of the early 20th century may have been the deadliest epidemic of a specific nutrient deficiency in U.S. history. Part one covers what it is, its appearance in 19th-century Italy, and the first reports of it in the U.S. 

Research:

• Akst, Daniel. “Pellagra: The Forgotten Plague.” American Heritage. December 2000. https://www.americanheritage.com/pellagra-forgotten-plague
• Baird Rattini, Kristin. “A Deadly Diet.” Discover. Mar2018, Vol. 39 Issue 2, p70-72.
• Bridges, Kenneth. “Pellagra.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/pellagra-2230/
• Clay, Karen et al. “The Rise and Fall of Pellagra in the American South.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 23730. 2018. http://www.nber.org/papers/w23730
• Cleveland Clinic. “Pellagra.” 07/18/2022. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23905-pellagra
• Crabb, Mary Katherine. “An Epidemic of Pride: Pellagra and the Culture of the American South.” Anthropologica , 1992, Vol. 34, No. 1 (1992), pp. 89-103. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25605634
• Flannery, Michael A. “’Frauds,’ ‘Filth Parties,’ ‘Yeast Fads,’ and ‘Black Boxes’: Pellagra and Southern Pride, 1906-2003.” The Southern Quarterly. Vol. 53, no.3/4 (Spring/Summer 2016).
• Gentilcore, David and Egidio Priani. “Pellagra and Pellagrous Insanity During the Long Nineteenth Century.” Mental Health in Historical Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan. 2023.
• Ginnaio, Monica. “Pellagra in Late Nineteenth Century Italy: Effects of a Deficiency Disease.” Population-E, 66 (3-4), 2011, 583-610.
• Hung, Putzer J. “Pellagra: A medical whodunit.” Hektoen International: A Journal of Medical Humanities. https://hekint.org/2018/09/18/pellagra-a-medical-whodunit/
• Jaworek, Andrzej K. et al. “The history of pellagra.” Dermatol Rev/Przegl Dermatol 2021, 108, 554–566 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/dr.2021.114610
• Kean, Sam. “Joseph Goldberger’s Filth Parties.” Science History Institute Museum and Library. https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/joseph-goldbergers-filth-parties/
• Kiple, Kenneth F. and Virginia H. “Black Tongue and Black Men: Pellagra and Slavery in the Antebellum South.” The Journal of Southern History , Aug., 1977, Vol. 43, No. 3. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2207649
• Kraut, Alan. “Dr. Joseph Goldberger & the War on Pellagra.” National Institutes of Health Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum. https://history.nih.gov/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=8883184
• Marks, Harry M. “Epidemiologists Explain Pellagra: Gender, Race and Political Economy in the Work of Edgar Sydenstricker.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences , JANUARY 2003. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24623836
• Morabia, Alfredo. “Joseph Goldberger’s research on the prevention of pellagra.” J R Soc Med 2008: 101: 566–568. DOI 10.1258/jrsm.2008.08k010.
• Park, Youngmee K. et al. “Effectiveness of Food Fortification in the United States: The Case of Pellagra.” American Journal of Public Health. May 2U(H). Vol. 90. No. 5.
• Peres, Tanya M. “Malnourished.” Gravy. Southern Foodways Alliance. Fall 2016. https://www.southernfoodways.org/malnourished-cultural-ignorance-paved-the-way-for-pellagra/
• Pinheiro, Hugo et al. “Hidden Hunger: A Pellagra Case Report.” Cureus vol. 13,4 e14682. 25 Apr. 2021, doi:10.7759/cureus.14682
• A. C. Wollenberg. “Pellagra in Italy.” Public Health Reports (1896-1970), vol. 24, no. 30, 1909, pp. 1051–54. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4563397. Accessed 13 Feb. 2025.
• Rajakumar, Kumaravel. “Pellagra in the United States: A Historical Perspective.” SOUTHERN MEDICAL JOURNAL • Vol. 93, No. 3. March 2020.
• Savvidou, Savvoula. “Pellagra: a non-eradicated old disease.” Clinics and practice vol. 4,1 637. 28 Apr. 2014, doi:10.4081/cp.2014.637
• SEARCY GH. AN EPIDEMIC OF ACUTE PELLAGRA. JAMA. 1907;XLIX(1):37–38. doi:10.1001/jama.1907.25320010037002j
• Skelton, John. “Poverty or Privies? The Pellagra Controversy in America.” Fairmount Folio: Journal of History. Vol. 15 (2014). https://journals.wichita.edu/index.php/ff/article/view/151
• Tharian, Bindu. "Pellagra." New Georgia Encyclopedia, 20 September 2004, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/science-medicine/pellagra/.
• University Libraries, University of South Carolina. “A Gospel of Health: Hilla Sheriff's Crusade Against Malnutrition in South Carolina.” https://digital.library.sc.edu/exhibits/hillasheriff/history-of-pellagra/
• University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Pellagra in Alabama.” https://library.uab.edu/locations/reynolds/collections/regional-history/pellagra
• Wheeler, G.A. “A Note on the History of Pellagra in the United States.” Public Health Reports (1896-1970) , Sep. 18, 1931, Vol. 46, No. 38. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4580180

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