Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918
The Daughters nursed during many epidemics in the United States, including cholera, yellow fever, and typhoid. In late 1918, just as the First World War ended, returning soldiers brought the deadliest pandemic, the Spanish flu, to the United States. The flu killed more people both globally and domestically than the Great War that preceded it. The Daughters and their networks of schools and hospitals were not immune, and accounts of the epidemic have been preserved from their diaries, correspondence, board rooms, and provincial annals.
Annals of the Normandy Province, 1918
Telegram from Sister Theresa Houston to Mother Margaret O'Keefe
845 AM
44 Paid NL
Buffalo N.Y. Oct- 6/18
Mother Margaret
St Josephs Academy
Emmitsburg MD
May I go myself to fort Niagara to help with the epidemic cases I feel so well and everyone else either has been sick recently or is not fitted for that work it is so near and we might not have to be there long
Sister Theresa
Letter from Sister Fidelis Nagel to Mother Margaret O'Keefe
Oct. 18. 1918
My dear Mother:-
The grace of our Lord be with us for ever!
The epidemic raged here with terrible violence, and many were the victims, among them friends, benefactors, and two of our graduate nurses, and one of our Male Nurses, and several are still in a very doubtful condition. Excepting Sister Clara The Sisters have been spared so far, although all are nervous, and almost exhausted from the over work and strain <<as soon as>> Sister Clara's temperature was down it was edifying to see her beg to be
Tent City set up for overflow flu cases at St. Paul's Hospital, Dallas, TX
Most of the overflow cases came from nearby Camp Dick, Dallas
One of the few photos of the Daughters nursing during the epidemic, at Carney Hospital, Boston, MA (Sister unknown)
Instructions for Diagnosis and Treatment of Flu Cases
Carney Hospital, Boston, MA
