Elizabeth Fee

{{Short description|Irish-American medical historian (1946–2018)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2019}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = Dr | name = Elizabeth Fee | honorific_suffix = | image = Dr Elizabeth Fee.jpg | alt =  | caption = Photograph of Dr Elizabeth Fee speaking during her tenure as the Chief Historian at the National Library of Medicine. | birth_date = {{Birth date|1946|12|11}} | birth_place = Belfast, Northern Ireland | death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|10|17|1946|12|11}} | death_place = Bethesda, Maryland, US | nationality = | citizenship = | education = University of Cambridge and Princeton University | occupation = Historian of medicine and public health | employer = National Library of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and State University of New York | organization = | known_for = | notable_works =  | title =  | spouse = Mary Garafolo (m. 2005) }} '''Elizabeth Fee''' (December 11, 1946 – October 17, 2018), also known as '''Liz Fee''', was a historian of science, medicine and health. She was the Chief of the United States National Library of Medicine History of Medicine Division.<ref name="ajph"/>

== Early life and education == Fee was born in Belfast to Deirdre and John Fee, Methodist missionaries. From the age of five months, she began travelling with her parents to destinations including China, Malaysia, India, Egypt and throughout Europe.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Oransky|first1=Ivan|last2=Marcus|first2=Adam|date=November 17, 2018|title=Elizabeth Fee|journal=The Lancet|language=English|volume=392|issue=10160|pages=2164|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32832-0|issn=0140-6736|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/NLM_Mourns_Elizabeth_Fee.html|title=NLM Mourns the Loss of Elizabeth Fee, PhD, former Chief of the NLM History of Medicine Division|date=October 22, 2018|website=National Library of Medicine|url-status=live|access-date=October 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022220027/https://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/NLM_Mourns_Elizabeth_Fee.html |archive-date=October 22, 2018 }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last1=Birn|first1=Anne-Emanuelle|last2=Brown|first2=Theodore M.|date=April 18, 2019|title=Elizabeth Fee (1946–2018)|journal=American Journal of Public Health|volume=109|issue=6|pages=867–869|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2019.305065|issn=0090-0036|pmc=6508000|pmid=30998404}}</ref> After contracting scarlet fever in China, Fee lost her hearing in one ear.<ref name=":2" /> In her teen years, the family returned to Northern Ireland where Fee attended school.<ref name=":2" />

Fee studied biology at the University of Cambridge and received a First. In 1968, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and went to study with Thomas Kuhn at Princeton University. She was awarded two master's degrees and obtained a PhD in the history and philosophy of science in 1978.<ref name=":0" /> Her dissertation, based on Victorian periodicals, was titled "Science and the 'Woman Question,' 1860–1920".<ref name=":2" />

== Career == Fee taught history of science and medicine at the State University of New York and introduced controversial courses on human sexuality.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://paw.princeton.edu/memorial/elizabeth-fee-78|title=Elizabeth Fee *78|date=March 29, 2019|website=Princeton Alumni Weekly|language=en|access-date=October 11, 2019}}</ref>

In 1974, Fee went to work at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she worked until 1995. She worked in departments including health humanities, international health, and health policy.<ref name=":2" />

Fee was involved in the feminist movement and the Health Marxist Organisation.<ref name=":0" /> In 1994, she coedited ''Women's Health, Politics, and Power: Essays on Sex/Gender, Medicine, and Public Health'' with Nancy Krieger.<ref name=":2" />

She became particularly well known for her work to document and analyse the history of HIV/AIDS. Historian Theodore M. Brown has said that Fee sought "to make sure that vulnerable people do not have their needs and rights trampled in the rush to 'protect the public.'"<ref name=":0" /> She coedited ''AIDS: The Burden of History'' in 1988 and ''AIDS: The Making of a Chronic Disease'' in 1992 with Daniel Fox. Her work informed scholarship on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer health and wellbeing.<ref name=":2" />

Fee produced almost thirty books and hundreds of articles, on topics as varied as the racialized treatment of syphilis, the history of the toothbrush, and bioterrorism.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last1=Hochman|first1=Gilberto|last2=Benchimol|first2=Jaime|last3=Wegner|first3=Liene|last4=Azevedo|first4=Nara|last5=Sá|first5=Magali Romero|last6=Martins|first6=Ruth B.|date=September 2006|title=Elizabeth Fee: a historian reaching out to wider audiences|journal=História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos|language=en|volume=13|issue=3|pages=759–776|doi=10.1590/S0104-59702006000300011|pmid=17117523|issn=0104-5970|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sph.cuny.edu/2018/10/23/in-memoriam-dr-elizabeth-fee/|title=In memoriam: Dr. Elizabeth Fee|last=Birn|first=Anne-Emanuelle|date=October 23, 2018|website=CUNY Newswire|language=en|url-status=dead|access-date=October 11, 2019|archive-date=October 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181028103809/http://sph.cuny.edu/2018/10/23/in-memoriam-dr-elizabeth-fee/}}</ref> During her tenure at Johns Hopkins, Fee wrote a history of the School of Public Health, ''Disease and Discovery: A History of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1916–1939''.<ref name=":0" /> This is considered the first "biography" of the first school of public health, and it documented power networks in a supposedly technocratic field.<ref name=":2" /> Later, she and Roy Acheson wrote a history of public health education.<ref name=":0" />

In 1990, Fee became the editor of the history section of the ''American Journal of Public Health (AJPH)''.<ref name=":0" />

In the 1990s, she started the Sigerist Circle, which examined class, race and gender, and the Spirit of 1848 Caucus of the American Public Health Association, which sought to improve the understanding of how identity influences public health.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" />

Fee became the Chief of the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine in 1995.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2018/12/27/remembering-elizabeth-fee-phd-1946-2018/|title=Remembering Elizabeth Fee, PhD, 1946-2018|last=Reznick|first=Jeffrey S.|date=December 27, 2018|website=Circulating Now from NLM|language=en-US|url-status=live|access-date=October 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190101094738/https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2018/12/27/remembering-elizabeth-fee-phd-1946-2018/ |archive-date=January 1, 2019 }}</ref> She oversaw moves to restructure the organisation around three sections: Rare Books and Early Manuscripts, Images and Archives, and Exhibitions.<ref name=":1" /> In the 2000s, she became one of the leaders of Global Health Histories, a group created by the Rockefeller Foundation and the World Health Organisation to analyse 20th-century public health initiatives.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> This resulted in the book ''The World Health Organization: A History'', written with Marcos Cueto and Theodore M. Brown.<ref name=":2" /> She was appointed Chief Historian of the National Library of Medicine in 2011.<ref name=":2" />

Shortly before her 2018 death, Fee retired to become an independent researcher.<ref name=":1" />

== Awards == Fee received the following awards:

* Kellog fellowship - W. K. Kellogg Foundation<ref name="ajph">{{cite journal |author1=Anne-Emanuelle Birn ScD |title=Elizabeth Fee (1946–2018) |journal=American Journal of Public Health |volume=109 |issue=6 |pages=867–869 |date=May 18, 2019 |author2=Theodore M. Brown PhD|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2019.305065 |pmid=30998404 |pmc=6508000 }}</ref> * Fulbright fellowship<ref name=":0"/> * Regents Award - National Library of Medicine<ref name="ajph"/> * Arthur Viseltear Award - American Public Health Association<ref name="ajph"/> National Council on Public History

== Personal life == Fee met her wife, Mary Garafolo, in the 1980s when Fee was based at Johns Hopkins. They married in Vancouver in 2005.<ref name=":1" />

== Death and legacy == Fee died due to complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on October 17, 2018, in Bethesda.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />

The June issue of ''APJH'' featured eight articles marking Fee's influence on the field of the history of public health.<ref>{{Cite journal | url = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/issues/334430 | title= AJPH History | journal = Am J Public Health | volume = 109 | issue = 6| date = June 2019 | publisher = ncbi.nlm.nih.gov|language=en|access-date=October 11, 2019}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * {{cite journal| type = Transcript of an interview | year = 2006| title = Elizabeth Fee: a historian reaching out to wider audiences | journal = História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos | volume = 13 | issue = 3 | pages = 759–776 | author = Gilberto Hochman | author2 = Jaime Benchimol | author3 = Liene Wegner| author4 = Nara Azevedo| author5 = Magali Romero Sá | author6 = Ruth B. Martins | doi = 10.1590/S0104-59702006000300011 | pmid = 17117523 | doi-access = free }} * {{cite web| url = https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/?s=%22By+Elizabeth+Fee%22 | title = Blog posts | author = Elizabeth Fee | work = National Library of Medicine | access-date = November 21, 2019}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fee, Elizabeth}} Category:1946 births Category:2018 deaths Category:American women historians Category:American historians of science Category:Writers from Belfast Category:Emigrants from Northern Ireland to the United States Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge Category:Princeton University alumni Category:State University of New York faculty Category:Johns Hopkins University faculty Category:British LGBTQ historians Category:United States National Library of Medicine Category:Deaths from motor neuron disease in Maryland Category:20th-century American historians Category:21st-century American historians Category:20th-century American women writers Category:21st-century American women writers Category:20th-century LGBTQ people from Northern Ireland Category:21st-century LGBTQ people from Northern Ireland