Sick City is the cure for your curiosity about Kingston’s medical history

The Museum of Health Care’s Sick City outdoor guided tour has returned for the summer! This one hour walking tour digs beneath the pages of the history books to uncover the effects that pandemics and  politics had on real people in the Limestone City in its early days. Though medical history is not everyone’s cup  

of tea, this tour has something for everyone! Tours will run Thursday-Saturday at 10:30am and 2:00pm.  Tickets are $10 for adults, children 12 and under are free. 

Sick City uncovers the stories of immigrants arriving in Kingston from overseas during the cholera and typhus  pandemics of the mid-1800s. It dives into the discrimination faced by black and female medical students at  Queen’s Medical School, and what happens when the number of bodies donated to science doesn’t match the  number eager medical students studying anatomy. Guests will discover what it might have been like to be a  patient at Kingston General Hospital, National Historic Site, in its early days, and view Canada’s only remaining  Victorian-era operating amphitheater. The tour concludes at the Ann Baillie Building, National Historic Site, home to the Museum of Health Care and former residence for those training at Kingston General Hospital’s  Nursing School. 

“We are thrilled to be bringing back this walking tour in an updated format for the summer,” says Programming &  Communications Coordinator Claire Notman. “It really does emphasize the social history of this time through a  medical lens”, says Notman. “The mid to late 19th century would have been a very scary time to be sick. So much  of the medical and scientific knowledge we have now about infectious disease and illness simply didn’t exist. This  tour really is about people. Our mission is to bring Canada’s healthcare story to life, and I think we accomplish that,  and more, with this tour.” 

Tour Start: Museum of Health Care, 32 George Street, Kingston 

Date: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 

Time: 10:30am and 2pm 

Cost: $10 adults, children 12 and under are free 

Ticket link: Sick City Tickets