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The Influenza Epidemic of 1918

by Jen Ratliff on April 20th, 2020 | 0 Comments

Flu 1918
 
In late August of 1918, sailors working on ships along Boston’s waterfront began to show signs of influenza. In a matter of days, more than 2,000 sailors became ill and the city panicked to think that the civilian population would succumb next. By September 15th, hundreds of residents were crowding area hospitals and the illness was spreading to adjacent communities.
 
 St. Chretienne Academy

By mid-September, over 1,000 cases of the flu had been reported in Salem. Some of the first volunteers to aid in this epidemic were the nuns of Ste. Chretienne Academy. After being displaced only a few years prior by The Great Salem Fire of 1914, the sisters had just completed the construction of a new school near the former Loring Villa when the illness afflicted their city. By October 1918, the French nuns offered their new building to the city to be used as a hospital. The sisters would ultimately volunteer to serve as nurses for the more than 60 patients that filled their building. The Influenza Epidemic would continue through 1919, with ebbs and flows of severity. Ultimately, the epidemic would claim an estimated 675,000 nationwide.  

In 1972, Salem State purchased the former Ste. Chretienne Academy, creating South Campus.

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#SalemTogether Posts:
Salem Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis
North Shore Babies' Hospital
Now and Then Association

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Digitized Archives:
Ste. Chretienne Academy on Flickr


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