{"id":19956,"date":"2020-10-29T11:00:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T15:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=19956"},"modified":"2024-12-12T12:52:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T17:52:10","slug":"whats-behind-the-mask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2020\/10\/29\/whats-behind-the-mask\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Behind the Mask"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Elizabeth Mullen ~<\/em><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Behind the Mask, 1851
National Library of Medicine #101435427<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the end of October approaches many people begin to think about costumes<\/a>. A Halloween mask could frighten your friends, hide your identity, or help you pretend to be someone or something you are not.<\/p>\n

This Halloween, choosing the right mask\u00a0and wearing it properly is especially important for public health and safety.<\/p>\n

While there are many kinds of cultural masks\u2014for ceremony, art, or entertainment\u2014there is another important category of masks: protective equipment for health and safety. The collections of the National Library of Medicine include a variety of images depicting people using this category of masks in a variety of historical contexts.<\/p>\n

Protective masks have a long history<\/a>. For centuries people employed masks of various kinds to protect against occupational and environmental dust, smoke, and toxic materials. In the 17th century Charles De Lorme<\/a> is reputed to have developed the now widely recognized<\/a> plague doctor personal protective equipment (PPE) suit with its distinctive beak shaped mask<\/a>. Cholera epidemics in the 18th century prompted caricatures of the measures people took to ward off the infection. The end of the 19th century brought great leaps in understanding about microorganisms<\/a> but it took some time<\/a> for knowledge to be converted into practice. Even the best medical care of 1881<\/a> took insufficient care of infection.<\/p>\n

\"Person <\/a>
Plague Doctor, ca 1650 National Library of Medicine #101435718 <\/div> <\/div>
\"Portraits <\/a>
Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, President Garfield on his sickbed, Dr. D. Willard Bliss National Library of Medicine #b01104, #a012838, #b026279 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
Portrait eines Cholera Pra\u0308servativ Mannes, 1927 Print from an 18th century etching National Library of Medicine #101448015 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Around the turn of the 20th century the respiratory infection tuberculosis<\/a> was a leading cause of death<\/a> and a lot of research was being conducted on what caused it<\/a> and how it spread. When the 1918 influenza appeared, face masks were one of the public health measures recommended by officials. Increasingly health care workers began to regularly rely on masks to prevent infection and by 1935 most American surgeons were using cloth masks<\/a> of some kind in the operating room. Today surgical masks are intrinsic to the representation of a surgeon.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
Physicians and Nurses with Patient in Operating Room, 1910 National Library of Medicine #101724673 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
Stopien\u030c Ryzyka National Library of Medicine #101456108 <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
Michael DeBakey Observing Surgery at the Leriche Clinic in Strasbourg, France, 1935 National Library of Medicine #101743405X33 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

This period also saw a focus on occupational safety<\/a> masks and ventilators. Chemical warfare in The Great War drove use of gas masks<\/a> for soldiers (and horses) in the military. (The war also drove research in plastic surgery and facial prosthetics, usually painted copper masks<\/a> to cover scars received in battle.)<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"In <\/a>
Plastic Reconstruction of Face <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nurses <\/a>
Nurses in Gas Masks at the Trenches, Germany, 1916 National Library of Medicine #101594332 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

By the1970s expanding industry and the labor rights movement brought about the Occupational Safety and Health Act<\/a> (OSHA) to address the need for safety in the workplace, including PPE<\/a>. Today,\u00a0 occupational safety masks are an ordinary part of many people’s work lives. In October 2020, masks are a common feature of our lives and an important tool to help slow the spread\u00a0of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\"Three <\/a>
Disinfect the patient’s room thoroughly before others move in, 1953 National Library of Medicine #101556869 <\/div> <\/div>
\"Cover <\/a>
Recommended Respiratory Protective Devices, 1944 National Library of Medicine #25910860R <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A Man Using a Grinding Wheel National Library of Medicine #101447105 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Perhaps this Halloween you’ll want to stay home in front of the TV and find out what’s behind this mask<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Explore more images of medical masks in NLM Digital Collections<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

As you plan for the holiday, <\/em>be sure to read and follow guidelines for Halloween<\/a> offered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and, as always, follow the main CDC guidance on masks to help slow the spread of COVID-19.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>Elizabeth A. Mullen is Manager of Web Development and Social Media in the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elizabeth Mullen ~ As the end of October approaches many people begin to think about costumes. A Halloween mask<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":20037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"What's Behind the Mask\r\n#histmed #halloween","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12763,4940351],"tags":[678875829,136219,6168,462705,28006,57544],"class_list":["post-19956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collections","category-prints-photographs","tag-covid-19","tag-epidemic","tag-halloween","tag-occupational-health","tag-public-health","tag-surgery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/25921140R_feature.jpg?fit=900%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-5bS","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19956"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51333,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19956\/revisions\/51333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}