The Endless Possibilities of Rejuvenation: Hormones, Electricity and Cosmetics, c.1870-2000. (360G-Wellcome-104729_Z_14_Z)

This grant will enable initial archival scoping, mapping out the content and nature of primary historical sources relating to the history of rejuvenation treatments and therapies from the late-nineteenth century onwards. The project will focus on three key episodes in the history of rejuvenation: the use of chemical hormone treatments, the advent of domestic electrotherapy for physiological rejuvenation, and the relationship between trends in cosmetics and anti-ageing. The emphasis of the projec t will be on establishing how rejuvenation treatments were devised, manufactured, marketed and, most importantly, used. Two key historiographical themes - the gendered nature of the ageing process, and the domestication of everyday medical technologies - will underpin the three case studies of hormones, electrotherapy and cosmetics. There is much archival material held at the Wellcome Library and the Boots Archive relating to these themes, and this grant will support a thorough survey of these s ources. This research will lay the groundwork for further funding applications designed to fully realise the project in the form of a monograph, although this grant will of itself lead to a research article addressing one of the key questions as outlined in this application.