A national traveling exhibit currently at Peoria’s Methodist College showcases the history of public health messaging related to AIDS and HIV dating back to the 1980s.
Joel Shoemaker, the college’s associate director of library services, said the six-panel display progresses through different terminology and attitudes toward the disease.
“There’s a cool graphic of the first poster, which they think is from 1981 and that was done by an AIDS patient themselves, kind of before they knew what it was. I think they called it ‘gay cancer’ at the time,” said Shoemaker.
“Then, all the way through the most recent posters, from like 2016, showing someone living with the disease undetectably, showing that there is a way to live a full life with the disease now and that the pandemic is still with us.”
The free exhibit, titled "AIDS, Posters, and Stories of Public Health: A People’s History of a Pandemic,” is presented through a partnership with the National Library of Medicine.
“We’re an institution for the health sciences; that's what we're teaching, and I think that it's a really good supplement to that,” said Shoemaker. “I think it’s good for nursing students, but also just the general public.”
Shoemaker said it’s enlightening to see the evolution of beliefs about AIDS and HIV over the past four decades.
“My favorite poster here, because I’m from a small town, is just a woman who is basically saying, ‘We always thought that this was a big city issue, or that this was a male issue,’ and she is living with the disease,” he said. “She was interviewed at that time, and then the Centers for Disease Control, made a poster about it.
“So it's just really interesting to see the different perspectives, and just sort of how people thought about it then versus how people think about it today.”
The self-guided exhibit runs through Aug. 9 and can be viewed daily in the Methodist College lobby during operating hours — 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m. daily and 6:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
