The Edge of
EpidemiologyBy Devin Teichrow

Historical desk

Disease, empire, war, routes, and historical epidemiology

This section pulls the history-facing writing and atlas work together so it can be browsed as a coherent body of work.

Atlases

Historical map projects

An 1870 engraving of the large Dreadnought hospital ship moored off Greenwich, with small rowing boats alongside.
A floating hospital. Dreadnought at Greenwich, 1870. Image source ↗
AtlasMARITIME / PORTS

Atlas family

Maritime Disease Atlas

A darker, map-forward atlas of shipboard disease ecology, ports, vectors, and the movement constraints of life at sea.

Map scenarios with route, mechanism, and historical narrative

Open now
A hand-drawn map of Boston and surrounding waterways, with buildings and entrenchments marked on aged paper.
Boston and its entrenchments. Manuscript map, c. 1775. Image source ↗
AtlasREVOLUTIONARY WAR / COLONIES

Atlas family

Revolutionary War Disease Atlas

A historical epidemiology section focused on colonial and Revolutionary-era disease ecology, troop movement, and the public-health constraints around the founding period.

Essay-linked historical synthesis

Historical section
Gloved hands hold a skull during examination of the jaw and teeth in the Varnhem dental research project.
Examining the evidence. Teeth and jaw from Varnhem. Carolina Bertilsson · CC BY 4.0 ↗
AtlasVIKING / NORSE

Atlas family

Viking Health Atlas

A Norse-world disease and health map that ties Greenland, Vinland, settlement ecology, and pre-Columbian contact arguments into one visual surface.

Map-based historical synthesis plus linked essays

Norse-world atlas

Essays

History-facing published work

June 12, 2026global health · Full essay

Essay

The Deaths We Can't Count

Some deaths pass through a bureaucracy. Others have to be reconstructed from fragments.

May 25, 2026science · Full essay

Essay

The Ordinary Deaths of the Vikings

The saga version is raids and swords. The burial evidence points to infection, injury, childhood death, and ordinary premodern risk.

May 4, 2026science · Evergreen

Essay

MV Hondius Hantavirus Outbreak: What We Know

A source-first guide to the MV Hondius hantavirus outbreak, Andes virus, cruise-ship exposure, travel risk, and what investigators could know.

April 1, 2026science · Evergreen

Essay

Did Vikings Spread Plague Across the North Sea?

A careful look at Viking movement, North Sea disease ecology, plague evidence, Norse voyages, and the limits of reconstructing medieval pathogen spread.

March 27, 2026science · Full essay

Essay

Is the White Plague Returning?

TB never really left. The question is why public health keeps giving it room to come back.