Understanding the "Sexual Plagues": Evidence for Correcting Catalog Records for an Indiana State Government Publication

Abstract

When Indiana’s State Board of Health began distributing “Social Hygiene Versus the Sexual Plagues,” an early twentieth-century sex education pamphlet intended to keep young men from risking sexually transmitted infection, this pamphlet positioned Indiana at the vanguard of a growing public health movement. “Social Hygiene Versus the Sexual Plagues” warned against both the “rapid invasion of the American home” by incurable ailments like syphilis and “the direful consequences of sex secrecy." Although these cautions may sound hyperbolic, or even simply strange, to our ears, the matter of providing sex education to unmarried individuals was deeply controversial. It took considerable effort to publish this title, which is still found in a number of Indiana libraries. The hidden story of the creation of this state government publication provides new information about its authorship and publication dates, which are often inaccurate in catalog records for this title.