Hysterical? Yes. Comic? Yes. Funny? No.

The Works: Drugs, Sex & AIDS
(Randy Shilts Papers (GLC 43), Box 129
Folder: IV (intravenous) Drug Abuse)

The San Francisco History Center is presenting the exhibition Quarantine and Eradication: Plague In San Francisco about the third plague pandemic (i.e. bubonic plague) and the effects of its presence in San Francisco in the early 1900s. The material on exhibit examines the movement of the disease, how it was popularly viewed, and the many influences that shaped the city's and the country's responses. As early cases were from the Chinatown district, some items highlight the persecution of Chinese and Chinese Americans, and the hysteria that surrounded the plague due to the lack of information about the disease and the lack of understanding of how best to contain and eradicate it.

The Works: Drugs, Sex & AIDS
(Randy Shilts Papers (GLC 43), Box 129
Folder: IV (intravenous) Drug Abuse)

80 years later, San Francisco would be hit hard again with another plague, the AIDS epidemic. In conjunction with the larger exhibition, we've selected a few items to illustrate the same sense of hysteria that accompanied the early years of the AIDS crisis. The selection of the items also brings attention to the library's participation in a digitizing project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities called "The San Francisco Bay Area’s Response to the AIDS Epidemic:  Digitizing, Reuniting, and Providing Universal Access to Historical AIDS Records."

As we look through the archives to answer reference questions or to prepare material for scanning*, we frequently come across items that show the varied approaches taken to promote education and safe(r) practices. Among them is this comic book guide to safe intravenous drug use: The Works: Drugs, Sex & AIDS which was published by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in 1987. You can find the entire booklet in the Randy Shilts Papers (GLC 43), Box 129, which is available through the San Francisco History Center, 6th floor, Main Library.

*Related collection recently scanned and online: People vs. Owen Bathhouse Closure Litigation Records, 1984-1987 (SFH 31).