Trudeau

Edward Livingston Trudeau and the Saranac Laboratory

February 23, 2026 by ADK Taste 1 Comment

In the late 19th century, when tuberculosis was the deadliest disease in America, a gravely ill physician arrived in the Adirondacks seeking relief — and helped change medical history.

This episode of the ADK Talks podcast features Amy Catania, Executive Director of Historic Saranac Lake, discussing Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau and the founding of the Saranac Laboratory, the first U.S. lab devoted exclusively to tuberculosis research. [Read more…] about Edward Livingston Trudeau and the Saranac Laboratory

‘Everything Is Tuberculosis’ Relates TB Scientific and Social History

March 6, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is seen as a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

Known as consumption in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the term tuberculosis was introduced in 1834. TB became associated with industrialization which forced poorly nourished working class people to live in drafty and damp dwellings. [Read more…] about ‘Everything Is Tuberculosis’ Relates TB Scientific and Social History

Historic Saranac Lake Groundbreaking Ceremony

July 6, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Historic Saranac Lake will host a groundbreaking ceremony on August 1, 2023 at 4 pm, marking the beginning of construction at the Trudeau Building. The historic former home and medical office of Dr. E. L. Trudeau will undergo complete rehabilitation for expansion of Historic Saranac Lake’s museum at the neighboring Saranac Laboratory. [Read more…] about Historic Saranac Lake Groundbreaking Ceremony

1 in 7 Infected: Tuberculosis Before Antibiotics

May 6, 2020 by Amy Catania Leave a Comment

Today, the planet is taking a crash course on the limitations of modern medicine and the complications of human disease. It is a good time to look back and see what Saranac Lake’s history might teach us about public health.

From our place in the world of modern medicine and science, it can be easy to see healthcare in the past as quackery. Many visitors to the Saranac Laboratory Museum skeptically ask: “Was there anything to it? Was there any benefit to the Saranac Lake treatment?” [Read more…] about 1 in 7 Infected: Tuberculosis Before Antibiotics

Saranac Lake Local History Has Lessons For Today

March 31, 2020 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Many years ago, Saranac Lake, NY, rallied to fight a deadly disease – tuberculosis – which killed one in seven people in the late nineteenth century.

Highly contagious and with no known cure, fear and stigma surrounded TB. Unlike the new virus we face today, many of its victims were young people in their 20s. Like today, quarantine was often seen as an appropriate solution, and sometimes people were isolated against their will. A person’s ethnicity, race, and socioeconomic status affected the kinds of treatments available. [Read more…] about Saranac Lake Local History Has Lessons For Today

A New Biography of Dr. E. L. Trudeau

August 13, 2016 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Historic Saranac Lake has announced the release of a major biography of Dr. E. L. Trudeau by Mary B. Hotaling. The book, entitled A Rare Romance in Medicine: The Life and Legacy of Edward Livingston Trudeau, is now available to purchase from Historic Saranac Lake, and will soon be for sale in local bookstores.

The new biography expands upon Dr. Trudeau’s autobiography, published posthumously in 1915. The doctor’s great-great-grandson, Doonesbury Cartoonist Garry Trudeau, wrote the Foreword. Dr. Andrea Cooper, former Francis B. Trudeau Chair in Tuberculosis and Related Research at the Trudeau Institute, and Dr. Ian Orme, professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at Colorado State University, contributed the closing chapter. The final chapter sets Dr. Trudeau’s work in the context of the continuing study of the cellular immune response to TB. [Read more…] about A New Biography of Dr. E. L. Trudeau

Trudeau

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