My favorite memory of collecting data for Dirty Words: The Rhetoric of Public Sex Education, 1870-1924 took place in the Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota.  I was looking for information about two public health campaigns from the early 1920s entitled “Keeping Fit” and “Youth and Life.”  Both campaigns consisted of a series of posters targeted largely at white male and white female audiences, respectively, and discussed controversial issues such as venereal diseases, chastity before marriage, and reproductive health. 

At the end of a long day of searching through boxes and boxes of primary sources, I happened to mention to the library staff that I was particularly interested in these two specific poster campaigns.  The head archivist, David Klaassen, got a far-away look in his eye and jumped out of his seat, beckoning for me to follow.  He disappeared into his office and, after a few minutes, re-emerged with a stack of unfiled papers.  The papers, it turns out, featured copies of posters from another corresponding health campaign entitled “Keeping Fit: For Negro Boys and Young Men.”  I had never seen any reference to this campaign and, until that moment, had no idea that it existed. 

Over the next few days, I came to realize that no existing research had examined this campaign and that the campaign itself provided evidence of early health disparity work among U.S. public sex education advocates.  This archival find shifted how I was conceptualizing my book project by encouraging me to question the communication of race in early discourse concerning public sex education.  Looking back, that experience solidified my view that few activities offer more potential for excitement and discovery than a visit to the archives and a talk with an accomplished archivist.

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Robin E. Jensen is an assistant professor of communication at Purdue University and author of the new book Dirty Words: The Rhetoric of Public Sex Education, 1870-1924.