Like the Slave Quarters assessment, this question requires students to consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of a document as historical evidence. Students with a sophisticated understanding of how to source this document will be able to explain that the painting is useful in that it is based on information from a person who witnessed the plague in the 17th century. They will also observe, however, that the image might be limited as evidence of what doctors wore because it is an artist’s interpretation rendered over two centuries after the account was recorded.
