CHANGING BELIEFS AND REDUCING DISEASE:

1890 LOWELL TYPHOID EPIDEMIC

By David Paquette, Volunteer

Every Public Health student knows the story of John Snow. In 1854, John Snow conducted pioneering investigations on cholera epidemics in England and particularly in London in which he demonstrated that contaminated water was the key source of the epidemics. His thorough investigation of an epidemic in the Soho district of London led to his conclusion that contaminated water from the Broad Street pump was the source of the disease and, consequently, the removal of the handle led to cessation of the epidemic. The water was still contaminated, but people could not access it.

Nearby Lowell, Massachusetts has a very similar story with typhoid. Typhoid is spread by eating or drinking food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person. Typhoid fever is caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica serotype typhi (S. typhi). 

SHARING THE HISTORY OF PUBLIC HEALTH

We continue to welcome students at the high school and college level. We have a new button on our website for school groups and general admission. Book your school group tours for the fall. We host senior centers, photography groups, and municipal public health teams for tours. Please contact info@publichealthmuseum.org to plan your visit.

Evening tours continue through the summer with our partners at the Tewksbury Public Library.

Silver Crescent Photography visited recently for a photo tour of the old buildings.

RESEARCH PROJECT

Before there was PowerPoint, there were 35mm projection slides and overhead projection of transparencies, and before that there were “lantern slides” used in presenting pictures, figures, tables and words. These 4 x 3 ¼ inch glass plates were used in scientific presentations as lecture slides into the 1960s. The Public Health Museum has come into possession of a number of lantern slides used for presentations in the 1920s through the 1940s. They contain data and pictures from public health studies that may not be documented anywhere else. Volunteer Pat Cavanaugh is categorizing and putting these slides in order to inventory and interpret their contents. Early indications are, that after this painstaking process, there will be interesting results of public health and scientific historical significance to share.  

CORRECTION: In our June newsletter we incorrectly stated that Boston was the first city in the country to institute school nurses. Member Dorothy Keeney shared this bit of clarification for us and we very much appreciate it.

Boston, Massachusetts is not the first city, nor Massachusetts the first state to start school nursing.  New York City, in 1902, was the first city to start a school nurse program in its school.  Los Angeles followed New York City, and Boston started its program in 1905.  Nurse Annie McKay was appointed on December 6, 1905, to a pilot project placing a nurse in three Boston schools, namely the Quincy, Andrews, and Way Street schools. Her legacy in Boston public schools lay in making a free education accessible to more children and especially for scores of immigrant children to pursue an essential aspect of the American Dream.  Her pioneering work also helped establish a system of health assessment, intervention, and follow-up for all school children which is still enjoyed today.  

Boston led the way in 1894 to improve health care for school children by implementing the medical inspection of students in schools using physicians. They were the first city in the US to establish this new program, following in the footsteps of England and Europe. 

Dorothy has published a book about school nurses called, The Untold Story of Annie McKay and the Boston Public School Nurses 1905-1988 The Formation of the Massachusetts School Nurse Organization.

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