Welcome to History in our Bones. This exhibit will introduce you to the newest cross-disciplinary research on disability in premodern Europe. Our project, Visible Disability, is led by staff and students at the University of St Andrews, including historians, archaeologists, bioarcheologists, forensic imaging experts, medical professionals, and creative artists in Scotland, England, Ireland, Italy, and Germany.

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As you move through the exhibit, we invite you to think about the complex, intersecting layers of identity of two real medieval people: a woman (ELS215) buried in a monastic cemetery in Bedfordshire, and a man (SA15) buried in a place of prestige in a church connected to a monastic hospital near Newcastle. 

 

In this exhibit, we present various ways of “seeing” these two individuals – interrelated views that integrate history, science, and art. 

 

At the end of the exhibit, we invite you to share your impressions and experience with us. By thinking about the full personhood of individuals with disabilities in the past, we can also create pathways to greater empathy and understanding for individuals with disabilities in the present.