proms.
.
pandemic.
arrived in Michigan. The disease killed many more Americans than those who died in World War I.
.
Richard Adler (a longtime professor of biology and microbiology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn) explained the origins of the inaccurate name:
, the disease likely originated at Camp Funston, Kansas, which is now Fort Riley.”
Reflecting on what happened in the state during that pandemic a century ago to gain perspective on the state’s current situation, Michigan History Center staff members found accounts of how state and local government officials responded to the outbreak.
,” Reese said.
response
hen military personnel in Detroit, Bay City and at Camp Custer started getting sick, containment efforts were sluggish. People insisted that the flu had been around forever and had high recovery rates.
weeks after Michigan’s first flu deaths.
Counties and cities had to individually request further closures from the governor. Many officials waited to make these requests until the area’s hospitals were overrun and the flu had been circulating for months.
ome people protested that these restrictions were too harsh.
the equivalent of 50,000 people in today’s population. Michigan had 554 influenza deaths in 1917. In 1918, 6,336 died of influenza between October and December alone.
and most counties saw a 20%-50% increase in deaths.
WWI victory parades and Thanksgiving parades in November 1918.
more than two years after the initial introduction of the disease.
Scant record
.
.
pandemic for the benefit of future generations.
the record we preserve
”
– how the coronavirus is affecting Michigan residents in the workplace, at home, in communities and in many other settings.
.
Stages
is active right now. It offers a web-based platform for people to share and donate photos, videos and audio files that document their lives during this emergency – all of which will be considered for preservation in the Archives of Michigan’s collections.
site includes an image gallery that allows others to see what people are posting, in real time.
Stories that have been submitted so far include:
- .)
- )
- )
- ubmitted by Angela R.)
The second phase of the project is collecting three-dimensional objects and documents related to the coronavirus emergency for the Michigan History Museum system’s collections. In keeping with the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” Executive Order, this phase will begin with a call to the public to help identify items and move to physically gathering them once it is safe to do so.
The third phase involves long-term collecting of stories, through oral history and StoryCorps interviews, memoirs and other materials created during the reflection period after an immediate crisis. These materials will be preserved in both the museum and archival collections.
.
In time of crisis, there is comfort in knowing that we are not alone and that we are not the first to experience the unimaginable. Looking back, we can see changes in science and knowledge and some similarities in human behavior.
cope and respond.
CASEY WARNER
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
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