Bringing Light to the World: John Harvey Kellogg and Transatlantic Light Therapy

As the late nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, the world was embracing a modern marvel—the incandescent light bulb. Light by fire was quickly becoming passé, and everyone wanted the new symbol of technology and progress in their homes and workplaces. But one man saw the light bulb from a very different perspective. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, most noted for his invention of cornflake cereal, was an American health reformer who always strived to be on the cutting edge of technology. Already using electricity in various ways at his world-famous Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, Kellogg saw the new electric light bulb as a means to better health through light therapy. Light therapy, or phototherapy as Kellogg referred to it, was nothing new. Doctors in Europe, such as Auguste Rollier in Switzerland (the Sun Doctor) and Niels Ryberg Finsen in Denmark, were already running successful light therapy programs in their clinics by the time Kellogg came on the scene. Regularly positioning himself as a node in a transatlantic network of health reform, Kellogg, upon visiting both institutions to examine their practices, modified and implemented their programs through his Sanitarium. One of the most noted inventions to come from this transatlantic exchange was Kellogg’s Light Cabinet or the “Light Bath.” Put on display at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, it soon attracted the attention of foreign investors and doctors, and the German Kelloggische Lichtbad was soon found for sale across Germany and Europe. Kellogg’s practice of intercultural transfer led to a full circle of transatlantic exchange as an idea originally from Europe, after modification in America, was exported to its place of origin as something new.