Gilded Age New York City and the Birth of Modern Oncology
Fellows' Forums
- Tuesday, June 30, 2026
- Free

Event Details:
Presented live on Zoom
Before 1883, most American hospitals turned cancer patients away as hopeless and depressing cases unfit for medical treatment. For those who could afford private care, surgery was the only option. This began to change when the first two cancer hospitals in the U.S. opened in the 1880s, precipitating the emergence of oncology as a medical specialty. These sites hosted some of the first experiments in what would become oncology's greatest tools: radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.
Leland Jasperse is the New York Historical's 2025-2026 Helen and Robert Appel Fellow in History & Technology. His book-in-progress, Anaesthetic Aesthetics: Cancer Writing Across Oncology's Modernization, examines how cancer patients have turned to writing to make sense of cancer and its treatment across the first century of American oncology.
Anne Garner is the Curator of Manuscripts and Archival Collections at The New York Historical.
Location:
Presented live on Zoom
Ticket Instructions:
Online: Click the button above. If you need assistance, please send an email to fellowships@nyhistory.org.
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Fellowships at The New York Historical are made possible through the generous endowments of The Mellon Foundation, Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, and Helen and Robert Appel. Major support for fellowships is provided by Bernard L. Schwartz and the Lehrman Institute.


