Some of my current research is focused on investigating the impact of the 1918 pandemic in communities along an extended corridor stretching from Baltimore to Philadelphia. This work has or will take me to cities and counties along I-95, as well as jurisdictions near this region.
In the summer of 2019, before the novel coronavirus upended normal life, part of my fieldwork took me to rural Salem County. As I worked in South Jersey, the Salem County Historical Society asked if I would write an article for the quarterly newsletter. When the piece appeared in the print, no one could have guessed that in six months, another pandemic of historic proportions, the novel coronavirus of 202o, would rip across the world, shutting Salem County down for months as public health officials struggled to control the pathogen’s spread.
Thus this summer, as the nation battles the COVID-19 outbreak, the editor asked if I would take a further look at the fight against the disease there, 102-years-ago. This installment focused on the frontline workers when the so-called Spanish influenza ripped across the county in 1918.
My research continues as I have been working with the Delaware Public Archives death records, police blotters, public health reports, death certificates, governor’s correspondence, workhouse journals, Wilmington city records, and much more. As conditions permit, I plan to do additional fieldwork in Harrisburg, Trenton, and Philadelphia.
Here is the front page from the Quarterly Newsletter.
