Philadelphia's Lazaretto with David Barnes

Dr. David Barnes returns to the Athenæum to share some key insights and read short excerpts from his 2023 book, Lazaretto, winner of the Athenaeum Literary Award for nonfiction. While quarantine as practiced in the nineteenth century was a blunt instrument and brought with it many drawbacks that would not be tolerated today, the stories that Philadelphia’s Lazaretto contains have much to teach us, including about what effective public health leadership looks like.