Images and graphics from the 1918 influenza pandemic
-
- E-mail this item
Influenza germs
Influenza germs spread through the air when someone coughs.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- October 20, 2006
-
-
-
- E-mail this item
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.
-
- E-mail this item
'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: -
- E-mail this item
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:
-
- E-mail this item
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
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.
-
1918 influenza pandemic
In 1918, a virus spread across the planet -- unstoppable, incurable. In Baltimore, the impact was shocking. And as World War I was coming to an end, a new battle was shaping up in homes, schools and neighborhoods. By the end of October the virus had claimed more than 3,000 Baltimoreans. By spring it had killed an estimated 50 million people -- 650,000 of them Americans. Nearly a century later, the people who lived through it and the victims' families still recall their experiences with the flu.
