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Influenza germs
Influenza germs spread through the air when someone coughs.
Personal histories
During the late summer of 1918, Americans were gripped by news from the European front as World War I neared its end. They didn't dream that a larger, more deadly battle would soon be fought on U.S. soil.
'A splendid character'
Sick himself with influenza, one of Baltimore's most prominent doctors wrote a letter to the family of one of Baltimore's most promising researchers, fatally stricken as he tried to combat the 1918 influenza epidemic.
Separated by flu
Robert I. DeLashmutt and Maud E. Kennedy were two young lovers during the 1918 flu epidemic. Robert was born Aug. 25, 1898, and grew up on Webster Street, while Maud was born April 11, 1901, and grew up on the corner of Lowman and Clement Streets in Locust Point. The two first met at a Halloween party in 1917, and continued their courtship into the 1918 flu epidemic. But because both caught the disease, they were confined to their beds and could only communicate through letters. Here is one such letter Robert wrote to Maud. It was sent on Oct. 13, 1918, from his home on the 1500 block of Webster Street in South Baltimore:
View from Fort McHenry
Emily Raine Williams, who was born in Baltimore in the late 1870s, graduated from St. Mary's School of Nursing and became superindendent of nurses at the Fort McHenry Hospital during World War I. During the influenza pandemic, Williams wrote the following in her memoirs:
Nuns reach out to sick
The following is an excerpt from the 1982 book, "A Century of Caring." Sister Mary Cecelia O'Sullivan wrote this passage, according to Caroline Hook, Account Executive for Bonnie Heneson Communications, the PR agency of the Sisters of Bon Secours:
October 20, 2006
The disease that shook Baltimore
SOURCES: Sun researcher Paul McCardell contributed to this compilation. Its sources include the Baltimore Health Department; The World Almanac, 1919; The Sun; The Evening Sun; The (Baltimore) Afro-American; The Washington Post; PBS.org; Twoop.com Medical Timelines and the World Health Organization.
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