Patheos—[As my colleague] Philip wrote last Friday, “With all the unavoidable news right now about disease and epidemics, it’s an obvious temptation to look back to past eras to see how they coped with such things, culturally as well as medically.”
Indeed, as I get more and more emails from my employer, our kids’ school, and our city about coronavirus/COVID-19, I’ve certainly been tempted to brush up on my limited knowledge of the history of disease. Like Philip, I’ve thought a lot about 1918, and the influenza pandemic that killed 50 million people around the world, including 675,000 in this country. But while he considered how the pandemic—coinciding with the last year of World War I — inspired apocalyptic themes in film and literature, I spent some time this weekend revisiting one of my favorite digital history projects.
Almost fifteen years ago, the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan began to work on The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919: A Digital Encyclopedia. Updated in 2016, it surveyed how 50 American cities experienced and responded to the “Spanish flu.” The authors wrote a narrative essay and timeline for each city, but even more valuably, they digitized thousands of documents and images.
This time I wondered what the encyclopedia’s digital archive would reveal about religious responses to the influenza pandemic in this country. What caught my eye was a set of newspaper articles and other documents dating from late September 1918 through early November of that year — the first peak in the spread of the disease, when cities around the United States banned worship services, among other public gatherings. (Here in St. Paul, Minnesota, authorities waited until early November 1918 to close schools like Bethel. Then a second outbreak caused an “influenza vacation” in the winter of 1920.)
This time I wondered what the encyclopedia’s digital archive would reveal about religious responses to the influenza pandemic in this country. What caught my eye was a set of newspaper articles and other documents dating from late September 1918 through early November of that year — the first peak in the spread of the disease, when cities around the United States banned worship services, among other public gatherings. (Here in St. Paul, Minnesota, authorities waited until early November 1918 to close schools like Bethel. Then a second outbreak caused an “influenza vacation” in the winter of 1920.)
Rather than write a typical blog post, I’m going to share a variety of news stories from those weeks in late 1918. You’ll find a variety of religious responses to the deadliest epidemic in American history, I’m going to share a variety of news stories from those weeks in late 1918. You’ll find a variety of religious responses to the deadliest epidemic in American history,… Read More>>
RELATED RESOURCES:
- The Deadliest Pandemic – short, well-researched video on 1918 influenza – the deadliest in history! (One hundred years ago, a new influenza virus appeared and swept across the globe, killing between 50 and 100 million people. Two NIAID experts, Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger and Dr. David Morens, discuss why the 1918 flu was so deadly, and what resurrecting the virus from preserved tissues has taught us.)
- Spanish Flu: A Warning from History – well researched, 11-minute video on 1918 Spanish Flu produced by University of Cambridge (100 years ago, celebrations marking the end of the First World War were cut short by the onslaught of a devastating disease – the 1918-19 influenza pandemic. Its early origins and initial geographical starting point still remain a mystery but in the Summer of 1918, there was a second wave of a far more virulent form of the influenza virus than anyone could have anticipated. Soon dubbed ‘Spanish Flu’ after its effects were reported in the country’s newspapers, the virus rapidly spread across much of the globe to become one of the worst natural disasters in human history…..)
- How Does Coronavirus Kill? – 11-minute video answering this question in the beginning of the video, the rest is speculation
- The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919: A Digital Encyclopedia
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