"Two Cents for Health". Health Education and anti-Tuberculosis Stamps Campaigns. France 1920's-1930's

Virginie de Luca Barrusse, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne

My communication aim to examine the conditions under which a health education policy was into place and the means of this policy during the inter-war period in France. The anti-tuberculosis movement provides insight as it offers the possibility to understand how, parallel to institutional innovations, health care, prevention structures and health education were put into place and maintained. Anti-tuberculosis campaigns on postage stamps are interesting because they show how hygiene principles were spread nationally while also turning a profit. Starting in 1925, these campaigns contributed to the spread of hygiene information all the way to the most isolated regions of France. My comments are based on an examination of archives from the Pasteur Institute coming from the National Committee of Defense Against Tuberculosis, and also from regional archives in order to understand the circulation of the health educational model. I show that health education under the Third Republic took place through the population’s progressive internalization of favorable gestures conducive to personal and collective health. Furthermore, this health education taught people about existing measures, preventative health services, care places and programs. It was therefore a way to promote health and at the same time to promote health policy. The stamp campaigns in particular responded to a double approach geared toward spreading awareness: awareness of the risks related to tuberculosis but also awareness of the policies put into place to end tuberculosis. The goal was to cause the population to join the national effort in favor of the anti-tuberculosis fight. The success of stamp campaigns and the simultaneous reduction of tuberculosis-related deaths bolstered the chosen health policies.

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 Presented in Session 212. Impact of Public Health Measures in the Twentieth Century