My project on Spanish Flu of 1918

 Since we are living through a pandemic and we were assigned a history documentary project in Media Production, my group thought it would be a good idea to compare the two major pandemics, Covid-19 and the Spanish flu that took place over 100 years ago.

 

 

The Spanish flu started while World War one was happening. It was first observed in Europe in 1918, during the fighting. To keep morale high, countries that were in the war would not report on it, the only media that did were Spanish newspapers, hence the name. It really was not from Spain yet the exact orgins are unknown. Symptoms were much more extreme than Covid-19, within hours or days of getting the flu, skin turned blue and lungs started to dill with a fluid that would suffocate you. Like now, at first there were no treatments or vaccines available, yet we developed things much faster. Another difference, young people were usually fine with dresses like these, many young people contracted it and died, many of them being soldiers. 

 

 

In the summer of 1918, ‘doughboys’, American soldiers from WW1 were coming back home, and with them came the Spanish flu. Like what we see today, some government officials from all levels were ignoring it, some hosting big super spreader events despite knowing risks and urges to cancel them. President Woodrow Wilson even got it at one-point, early 1919. But most cities were imposing lockdowns like we see today, even citing people for going out and not wearing masks. Many businesses such as theaters and schools were closed, like what we see today.  Hearing that schools closed, I wondered what happened at New Trier, so I went to the archives. 

 

I met with the New Trier archivist, Susan Holderread. The school newspaper, New Trier News, was first published on September 30, 1919, The start of the next school year. Meaning we didn’t have too much information. The only small mention we could find would leave us guessing, It was from the dramatic club. The second issue of New Trier News was published on October 7, 1919, we found one small clue on the third page of that newspaper. It read,

"THE DRAMATIC CLUB.

Last year the "flu" epidemic interfered with many plans at New Trier. All the year we felt the pressure that came from making up three weeks or more of work that had been lost.".

 

 

This led us to believe that the school was only closed for about three weeks, but we were not sure since it said, “[T]hree weeks or more…”. That was very surprising because the Covid-19 pandemic kept the school closed for a third of a school year and has limited attendance for more than half a school year and no end of it this year is in site. We also looked in the literary magazine, New Trier Echoes, that was published in the year earlier for clues, but we found nothing. We won’t know for sure, but it is very surprising that they were able to shut down the school for a much shorter amount of time.

 

 

 

 

The pandemic came to an end by the summer of 1919 after everyone had died from it or gained immunity. But that wasn’t until 500 million people had got infected, and 20-50 million people (including 675,000 Americans) had died from it. It wiped out three percent of the worlds population.