Margaret Angus Research Fellowship

Introduction

Each year the Margaret Angus Research Fellow is selected by the Museum from a pool of qualified applicants. The appointed Fellow spends the duration of the four-month program researching and preparing a manuscript reflecting the history of health and health care as expressed by components of the Museum's collection. Each year, usually in autumn, the paper is presented by the Fellow to an audience at the Museum, to the delight of the public and professionals alike. 

Dr. Margaret Angus

The Museum of Health Care is privileged to have our Research Fellowship named after Dr. Margaret Angus. Dr. Angus' historical publications and contributions to the heritage community have been recognized throughout Canada. Dr. Angus died on February 15, 2008, a few months shy of her 100th birthday.

If you care to make a donation to our fellowship in honour of Dr. Angus, please contact the Museum or donate online.

Applications

Applications for the 2024 Margaret Angus Research Fellowship are now open. Click here for more information. 

Special thanks to Ian M. Fraser and Janine M. Schweitzer for their generous support of the Fellowship this year.

 

Research Projects

The manuscripts produced are available as research resources in the Museum. Below are the former research fellows, their projects, and resources available online.

2023   Monstrous Instruments: The Vaginal Speculum and the Contagious Diseases Acts Repeal Movement by Jessica Sealey. Watch the 2023 Research Fellow Presentation. View the 2023 Research Fellow Manuscript. Read the 2023 Research Fellow's blog series. Special thanks to Ian M. Fraser and Janine M. Schweitzer for their generous support of the Fellowship this year.
2022   "Survival Equipment": The Material Culture of Cystic Fibrosis by Anna Krentz. Watch the 2022 Research Fellow PresentationView the 2022 Research Fellow Manuscript. Read the 2022 Research Fellow's blog seriesSpecial thanks to Ian M. Fraser and Janine M. Schweitzer for their generous support of the Fellowship this year.
2021   The Lived Experience of COVID-19 in Canada by Savannah Sewell. Watch the 2021 Research Fellow Presentation, View the 2021 Research Fellow ManuscriptRead the 2021 Research Fellow's blog seriesSpecial thanks to Ian M. Fraser and Janine M. Schweitzer for their generous support of the Fellowship this year.
2020   Histories of Personal Protective Equipment and Strategies in the Fight against Infectious Diseases by Jessica Lanziner. Watch the 2020 Research Fellow Presentation (YouTube)View the 2020 Research Fellow manuscriptRead the 2020 Research Fellow's blog series.
2019   The Perpetual Caregiver: Charles Kirk Clarke and the Treatment of Women at Rockwood Asylum, 1885-1905 by Victoria Bowen. Watch the 2019 Research Fellow Presentation (YouTube)Read the 2019 Research Fellow's blog series. View the 2019 Research Fellow manuscript. Special thanks to Trustees of the Estate of Larry Gibson, Graeme Fraser  and Jay Rayner, for their generous support of this fellowship.
2018   Health in the Victorian Home: Health Care and Wellness in Home Advice Literature by Isabel Luce. Special thanks to Trustees of the Estate of Larry Gibson, Graeme Fraser  and Jay Rayner, for their generous support of this fellowship.
2017   The Spanish Influenza: Exploring Kingston's Deadly Epidemic of 1918 by Andrew Belyea. Read the 2017 Research Fellow's blog series. View the 2017 Research Fellow manuscript. Watch the 2017 Research Fellowship Evening Presentation (YouTube). Special thanks to Trustees of the Estate of Larry Gibson, Graeme Fraser  and Jay Rayner, for their generous support of this fellowship
2016   Frederick Banting, a Man of Insulin: Discovering a Human within a Hero by Natalie Mukhina. View the 2016 Research Fellow manuscript.
2015   Prisoners or Patients? Exploring Curative Labour in Kingston's 19th-Century Penitentiary and Asylum by Madeleine McKay.
2014   Borrowed Remedies and Hidden Histories by Rebecca Benson. View the 2014 Research Fellow manuscript.
2013   Half the Battle: War and the Public Health Revolution by Robert Engen.  View the 2013 Research Fellowship manuscript. Watch the 2013 Research Fellowship Evening Presentation (YouTube). Read the 2013 Research Fellow's blog series.
2012   Cultures of Birth. Midwifery in 19th- and 20th-century Ontario by Diana Gore Watch the 2012 Research Fellowship Evening Presentation (Youtube).
2011   Spare Parts: How Crippled Masculinity Got Hamstringed & Got a Leg-Up by Jeff Sobil. Watch the 2011 Research Fellowship Evening Presention (YouTube). 
2010   Torture or Treatment: Electroconvulsive Therapy by Sarah Xiao. View the abstractView the 2010 Research Fellowship manuscriptWatch the 2010 Research Fellowship Evening Presentation (YouTube). 
2009   From Laboratory Instrument to Powerful Diagnostic Tool: The Impact of the Electrocardiogram on the Clinical Diagnosis of Heart Disease, 1900-1970 by Leanne Shapton. View the 2009 Research Fellowship manuscriptWatch the 2009 Research Fellowship Evening Presentation (YouTube). 
2008   Badges of Honour or Devices of Control?: Uniforms at Kingston General Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1930-1970 by Andrea Melvin. View the abstractView the 2008 Research Fellowship manuscriptView the 2008 Research Fellowship Evening Presentation.
2007   The Malleability of Wax and Meaning: Marjorie Winslow and Twentieth-Century Moulage Production in Canada by Andrea Terry. View the abstractView the 2007 Research Fellowship manuscript. View our Cabinet of Curiosities exhibit on moulage.
2006   Dr. John G. Fitzgerald: Canada's Public Health Care Visionary by Jennifer Lem. View the 2006 Research Fellowship manuscript.
2005   Protecting our Privates; Military Health Education and the VD Epidemic by Christopher Webb.  View the abstractView the 2005 Research Fellowship manuscript.
2004   A Blessing to the Neighbourhood at Large': Dr. Kenneth Fenwick and late 19th-Century Surgery by Jennifer Walker. View the 2004 Research Fellowship manuscript
2003   Snake Oil and Mothers' Milk: The representation of woman in Victorian patent medicine advertising trade cards by Phaedra Livingstone. View the 2003 Research Fellowship manuscript. View our online exhibit on trade cards.
2002   Confining for Cure: A History of the Early Sanatorium Era in the Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Ontario: 1896 - 1918 by Lauren Furness. View the 2002 Research Fellowship manuscript.
2001   Plants in the Development of Modern Medicine by Viviane Paquin. View the 2001 Research Fellowship manuscript. Visit our related online exhibit  the Healing Power of Plants.
2000   The History of the No.7 Canadian General Hospital by David Kasserra View the 2000 Research Fellowship manuscript.
1999   The History of Prosthetic Joint Replacement by Daniel Sipes. View the 1999 Research Fellowship manuscript. Visit our online exhibit Joint Replacement
1998   Development of the Cardiopulmonary By-Pass Machine by Daniel Sipes. View the 1998 Research Fellowship manuscript. View a summary of our past exhibit on this topic
1997   Beyond Ether - 150 Years of Anaesthesia by Elaine Berman. 

 

From the 2019 Research Fellow

“The Margaret Angus Research Fellowship has quite literally changed the entire trajectory of my career. What started as an abstract interested in women and psychiatric history turned into an in-depth project that I became extremely passionate about. Without the fellowship, I likely would not have explored the medical humanities, which I now plan on focusing on in my graduate studies. This was my longest and largest project to date, and it taught me valuable lessons about research strategies, archive usage, time management, and writing for different audiences. I could not recommend the Margaret Angus Research Fellowship enough!"