Many have drawn connections between the 1918 Flu Pandemic (the Spanish Flu) to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The University of Idaho Library has created a new digital collection about the 1918 Flu Pandemic and how the University of Idaho handled it. The collection was started just before the stay-at-home order was implemented in Idaho and was created in about a week or two.
“We thought it would be an interesting contrast for people to view this collection in light of our current predicament with the COVID-19 pandemic,” Library Head of Data and Digital Services Devin Becker said. “Seeing how the university responded then versus now is instructive, and somewhat reassuring. The university survived that devastating pandemic and we will survive this one as well.”
Becker built the digital collection by designing the ways the collection is displayed through the various pages and different visual elements using their in-house collection software, Collection Builder. However, Courtney Berge, library archives and exhibits assistant, did most of the work putting the collection together.
Berge searched the library’s Special Collections and Archives and gathered the material to create the collection. Brainstorming for the collection originally started when it was discovered that the spring exhibit the library typically has would likely be pushed to the fall. She then was asked by the library’s dean, Ben Hunter, to create a digital exhibit instead. This was her first time putting together a digital collection, and she said she learned a lot from the experience.
Berge said a lot of the material they have about the pandemic came from the Student Army Training Corps (SATC); an organization created during World War I to train the men before sending them off to fight as soldiers. When these soldiers returned home, it was discovered that some had the flu and it was spread through the barracks.
Berge said not a lot of the material is related to the rest of the student body, but there are diary entries from a student who was a nurse for the sick people. There were correspondents with the university’s president at the time regarding closing the school, requiring quarantines and limiting public meetings. There was also a petition from students asking that classes and other responsibilities be canceled because of the pandemic, as well as Argonaut articles about various topics including the requirement to wear masks.
“It’s unique because it’s very timely. We don’t often get a chance to do a historical collection or exhibit in something as influential as the pandemic, so I think in that case it’s really interesting to look back at the history of the university and how it’s faced pandemics in the past and how it’s doing it now,” Berge said.
Nicole Hindberg can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @HindbergNicole.