Global Health Histories Project

This initiative involves sharing information about major public health events, trends, and issues - from a historical perspective - in an effort to guide thinking about health in the modern era. Among the books expected to be published is a history of global health in the last 60 years, written by health historians with assistance from current and retired WHO staff. Other printed publications underway are an official history of WHO in the 1970s, and a volume of "Public Health Classics".

Organisers are engaging in face-to-face interactions to shape this collection; retired WHO staff are gathering oral histories through interviews with people who have played a part in several key public health events of the world in the last 60 years. These interviews are being recorded, transcribed, and archived - and made available to historians, researchers, and others, with the potential also to be published or broadcast. These interviews are also accessible to the public through the WHO archive.

In-person experiences are also being used to facilitate interpersonal dialogue about these issues. With support from the Wellcome Trust and the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London, a series of lunchtime seminars will be held in the WHO library's main meeting room beginning in March 2008; they are open to everyone.

WHO is providing full access to information about this project (including details about the seminars, bibliographies, links, and access to publications) on a dedicated page on its website.

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