About The Project
We are rebuilding an archive that tells medicine’s whole story.
This website, Nature’s Medicine Through Time, is a free, noncommercial archive documenting the history of natural medicine across nine historical eras—from ancient traditions through botanical therapeutics, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, nutrition, manual therapies, and the full range of person-centered practices into the modern era. A library, a museum, a co-creative space.
Dr. Mitchell Bebel Stargrove has taught the history of medicine for more than 35 years at institutions including National University of Natural Medicine, Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, and University of Western States. Nature’s Medicine Through Time emerged in response to the need for high quality, historically-informed content for curriculum development for those teaching history, philosophy and therapeutic strategy at medical schools. This collaborative resource is the culmination and next phase of that work.
For four years, the site has served students, clinicians, educators, historians, and anyone curious about how ideas of the body and health, medicine and healing, have developed over centuries. It functions as both a browsable reference and a growing library of primary documents — original texts, rare sources, and historical records that make this history direct and practical, not just theoretical or academic. From physis to vitalism to systems sciences, you can browse it like a richly illustrated reference or dive into an original text to research a remedy, trace a lineage, or find the preparation of an obscure historical formula.
The editorial approach is honest and inclusive — not sanitized or self-congratulatory, but aimed at genuine understanding. The archive looks beyond therapies and theories to show how natural medicine traditions and integrative care have expressed social activism, embodied creative compassion, and extended the therapeutic relationship into daily life. As an academic project, it applies the model of professional formation as its framework — using naturopathic physicians as the case study — to provide an analysis that you won’t find synthesized anywhere else.
Why Phase II Matters
The current site works. However, its structure — long, dense pages organized by era — was the right choice for Phase I and is now the main constraint on what the archive can become.
Phase II is a fundamental rebuild. The goals are to:
Make every person, institution, event, and text a searchable, linkable entry rather than a paragraph buried in a long scrolling page.
Enable cross-referencing between people, events, and texts across all nine eras and domains of activity.
Continue building and enriching the content entries with documents and images already awaiting integration and many more planned.
Expand and refine the bibliography and supporting content across all eras.
Digitize and preserve historical books, articles, and primary sources that currently exist only in print, with a focus on works that are pioneering, influential, or of lasting clinical relevance.
Launch a curated Library of historical documents and rare images, accessible to students, educators, researchers, and practitioners worldwide.
Introduce dynamic search and conversational query tools that make the archive function as a true research resource.
Much of this is infrastructure work: not always the most visible part of the project, yet it’s what makes everything else possible. Our growing collection of text, images and downloads will flourish within this robust framework.
How to Participate
The full Phase II build requires $50,000. We are actively pursuing fiscal sponsorship and institutional partnerships toward that goal. To begin now, we are raising an initial $10,000 from those who already know this work and understand its value.
There are three ways to participate:
Help Us Reach Our Phase II Goal
As of June 7, 2026
