Struck down with the Spanish flu, he was in an isolation hospital and dreaming of home. No one is still living to remind Bay Area residents what it was like in 1918, but their words live on, if we are wise enough to listen to them. It’s just what is happening in life.”. Ralph is still in the barracks, he is looking to be discharged most any day altho [sic] they have been waiting for discharging blanks to come, as each must fill out a blank and have a physical examination before he can get out of the army. The flu spread rapidly in institutional settings, including military barracks where men shared close quarters. Letter says camp put "under quarantine to prevent an epidemic of Spanish influenza" Martin "Al" Culhane in letter told his brother to keep infection secret from rest of family Family wearing masks during 1918 Spanish flu pandemic (CBS). January 1919. “And by January, it was back, and worse than the first time. The family was photographed wearing theirs. “Spanish flu” has been used to describe the flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919 and the name suggests the outbreak started in Spain. And just like today, there was distancing. All Rights Reserved. In the letter, the student, Myrtle, mentions that the flu—which she spells “flue,” a not-uncommon spelling at the time—“is awful bad” where her parents are and that schools near her university have shut down because it’s “pretty bad” there too. If you’re using Office for Windows, use the following shortcuts: For accented vowels, press Ctrl + ', then the vowel you want to accent. Businesses were shut down with a special prohibition against dancing. and the flue [sic] is awful bad around there now. And as demand for medical facilities and doctors outweighed the supply, the Student Army’s barracks were turned into makeshift hospitals, where the university’s medical students came to help. Courtesy of National WWI Museum and Memorial, Thinking About a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S? The 1918 outbreak has been called the Spanish flu because Spain, which remained neutral during World War I, was the first country to publicly report cases of the disease. What We Can Learn From 1918 Influenza Diaries These letters and journals offer insights on how to record one’s thoughts amid a pandemic Century-Old Letters Written During 1918 Spanish Flu Shed Light On Current Pandemic BERKELEY (CBS SF) — A historian in Berkeley has always treasured the family letters written more than 100 years ago that were passed down to him. Soldiers looked forward to letters from home to help break the boredom, stress, homesickness, and loneliness. Updated March 20, 2020 A LETTER FROM F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, QUARANTINED IN 1920 IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE DURING THE SPANISH INFLUENZA OUTBREAK. have it, they thought it was not necessary to close college until they see that it must be done. The graded schools and High School is closed here but only a few students of K.U. The seas were running mountain high and a man’s size gale blowing,” reads the letter on yellow, crumbling paper. I certainly like my school work and time goes so fast, have all my classes in the forenoon but the lessons are so long it takes all P.M. and until 10 P.M. to prepare lessons for next day. Newspapers would list who had died, printing the names and addresses of people caught without a mask. The Spanish Influenza, and the Armistice of that same year, 1918, were fresh in the minds of my parents and their contemporaries. I like it fine down here altho [sic] it is a different life in town than in the country. Write to Anna Purna Kambhampaty at Anna.kambhampaty@time.com. On Oct. 8, 1918, faced with the reality of that year’s flu pandemic, the chancellor of the University of Kansas ordered a temporary shutdown of the school, expecting it to only last for a week. So that’s kind of the lesson for today. It struck me then as a vibrant example of a … ©2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. I try to see Ralph once each day. Spread in part by the war, the virus killed almost 200,000 Americans in October 1918 alone. What We Can Learn From a Letter Written Just After the Height of the 1918 Flu Pandemic. By the end, the flu had infected nearly 500 million people, or a third of the world’s population, and caused an estimated 675,000 deaths in the U.S. But what is perhaps most notable about the letter is how little of it is dedicated to the flu. As makeshift hospitals began filling up, Mary reported people were being pressed into service as health care workers. The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. Print. Miss Hine is greatly upset. “She told him that Oakland had collected over $7,000 in fines for people not wearing masks,” Bruce said. On a Mac. To receive letters that their mothers, siblings, best friends, girlfriends, and wives were ill or died from the Spanish flu—often weeks after the fact—became a mental torture for men and women in the service of their country. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter, Myrtle’s experience is one with which many students today would empathize. Lasting from February 1918 to April 1920, it infected 500 million people – about a third of the world's population at the time – in four successive waves. Share on Twitter. Bobby Clifton of Virginia Beach recently found the three-page letter his mother had written during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. They must remain in Lawrence.”. : Canadian Press wave, which began in September 1914, Bruce explained it made the public understand how the! Generally fine by the flu worldwide given to the flu of thousands sent from bases... 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