Letters from an Epidemic, 1832-1918

The concept behind this current exhibition crystalized during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst historians debated what to preserve and curate during this pandemic, I began to ponder the personal and social stories of preserved in the correspondence of earlier pandemics and epidemics as well as the lost art of the written letter. It was not only the content of the correspondence that held meaning. Past epidemics and pandemics left behind punctured, clipped, scorched, and stained fumigated mail. The practice of disinfecting mail (the merits of which were researched and debated during the COVID-19 pandemic) originated in Mediterranean ports during the eighteenth century.

The exhibition is an exploration of personal stories, the social history of medicine and the lost art of letter writing. Highlights include fumigated mail and correspondence which reference several US epidemics and pandemics including yellow fever (Texas,1839), cholera (Virginia,1849), smallpox (Philadelphia,1882) and La Grippe (Massachusetts,1918). 

 

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