A gloomy winter day seems the perfect time to launch a digital exhibition about the therapeutic effects of the sun. The digital exhibit delves into the visual culture of Heliotherapy, an ancient practice of total bodily exposure to sunlight, and Phototherapy, an electric light therapy pioneered in the 1890s. How heliotherapeutic and phototherapeutic practices were disseminated and popularized within the history and visual culture of light therapeutics during the early twentieth century will be explored using illustrated texts and objects from the Osler Library‘s collection – so too will themes of pleasure and discomfort, ancient and modern, and the natural and artificial.

Take a break and learn more at http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/sun/