Quincy and the Flu Pandemic of 1918
Over the past decade or so — and especially in the past few months — there has been a rise in public interest regarding the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, commonly referred to as the “Spanish Flu”. Coinciding with the final year of World War I and the first year of peace thereafter, the H1N1 flu virus ravaged the globe in three waves. It killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, making it one of history’s deadliest pandemics. It killed more people than the Great War itself.
Massachusetts was particularly hard hit by the deadly second wave of the pandemic as soldiers travelling back and forth from the front lines of Europe brought the disease home with them. In fact, Massachusetts became the introduction point of the second wave to the continental United States, and civilian populations in the state were largely defenseless as the virus spread rapidly.
In 2019, Quincy Historical Society debuted a project exploring the impact of the 1918 Pandemic on the city of Quincy. The story that we discovered was unique, and the data that we were able to compile was surprising. As part of that project the Society created an epidemiological spot map that shows the spread of the disease through Quincy by tracking deaths during the second wave. It is important to note that the map isn’t a comprehensive list of every individual who contracted the disease, or even a list of everyone who died during the whole span of the pandemic. However, the map does provide new information that contemporary newspaper reports could not. This digital exhibit aims to present some of those new details here.
The Map
The epidemiological spot map that the Society created is available to the public via Google Maps. For the best viewing experience, we recommend accessing the map in a separate tab on a desktop web browser.
Each red dot signifies an individual. These dots can be selected, and each one includes any biographical information that we could glean from death certificates, newspaper obituaries, or even from city directories. We included scans of newspaper clippings or other documents where possible.
Blue dots signify hospitals. We included relevant images and newspaper clippings for these as well. At the start of the pandemic, Quincy City Hospital and the Fore River Shipyard Emergency Hospital served a community of roughly 40,000. Doctors would also typically make house-calls for less severe conditions. Though it is worth noting that many doctors and nurses that normally served Quincy were absent from the community during the Fall of 1918 because of the war.
Over the course of several weeks, five additional emergency hospitals would open throughout the community to meet the surge in medical care needed. These emergency hospitals would convert a Neighborhood Club House, several housing dormitories, and even a train car into triage centers.
For a slightly better visualization of the spread of the disease this time-lapse animation shows the day-to-day mortality data starting September 10th and ending October 31st. It is unknown how many people contracted the disease during this time, but estimates range between 5,000 and 16,000 cases.
The Data
One by-product of collecting so much biographical information is a large amount of raw data. Upon further anaylsis of this data, patterns began to emerge. Some of these patterns were not surprising, and in-line with other’s research into the subject. For example, Quincy’s mortality rate from the 1918 Pandemic shows the same peculiar vulnerability in those aged 15 to 50.
In a normal flu season, the flu is most deadly for the very youngest and oldest in a given population. The 1918 Flu Pandemic famously flipped the script. This was, at least in part, because of a mechanism within the virus that could trigger an overreaction in the immune system of the infected, causing the body’s natural defenses to attack even healthy cells. This meant that those with stronger immune systems were more likely to die from this particular strain of flu. There may have also been some natural immunity in the older population due to a flu outbreak in the 1890s.
Along the same lines, the “curve” of the mortality “surge” in Quincy was about five weeks long, which was typical for this pandemic. Although, notably, Massachusetts’ peak was about three weeks earlier than the national average.
Where the data became surprising was upon organizing it by other demographics, especially by neighborhood and occupation.
One of the prevalent pieces of rhetoric about the 1918 Pandemic, spread mostly during the pandemic itself, was the idea that it was a “great equalizer” of the communities it touched. Allegedly, no one was safe from the ravages of the disease, and no amount of money or power could change that. And while that is true in some sense (even President Woodrow Wilson is widely believed to have contracted the virus as well as King Alfonso XIII of Spain) and some locations more than others, based on our data, it appears that the more working class neighborhoods of Quincy are disproportionately represented in the mortality data.
According to our research 70% of the deaths in Quincy occurred in just three neighborhoods: West Quincy (27%, 64 deaths), South Quincy (24%, 58 deaths), Quincy Point (19%, 47 deaths). These neighborhoods were the most populous at the time, but it is unlikely that they accounted for 70% of the total population.
Furthermore, if one refers back to the spot-map, one can see that some of the wealthier neighborhoods of Quincy, such as the area around President’s Hill, have fewer deaths even though they were fully populated in 1918. (As opposed to other neighborhoods like Squantum, Houghs Neck, and Adams Shore that were not as heavily populated as they are today, and thus do not appear much in the data. )
This trend of working-class areas being more heavily affected is further supported by looking at the data based on occupation.
Those who lived in the neighborhoods of South Quincy or Quincy Point in 1918 likely were employed at the Fore River Shipyard, thus accounting for Fore River being tied for the highest mortality rate by occupation. Many residents of West Quincy were employed in the granite industry. “Labor” as an occupation can probably be divided between the granite industry and the work force at Fore River.
Notably, the other occupation tied for the highest mortality rate was that of “housewife”. Many of whom were married to workers in the other occupations. Many also would have increased their exposure because of their position as a “domestic” in wealthier families’ homes, acting as a part-time caretaker to the family. Though, this information rarely made it into the city directories or onto these women’s death certificates.
Overall, if one looks at the deaths in working class occupations altogether, they account for 79% of the deaths in Quincy due to the 1918 Pandemic.
Lastly, when we arrange the data points by place of birth, we see that the immigrant community constitutes 47% of the deaths in Quincy. Which, if you also include the second generation (with at least one immigrant parent), then it rockets up to 75%. At this time it is estimated that 60% of Quincy’s total population is either first or second generation immigrants. They also primarily came to Quincy looking for work in the granite or shipbuilding trades, and predominantly lived in the neighborhoods of South Quincy, Quincy Point, and West Quincy.
Epilogue
In researching the impact of the 1918 Pandemic on Quincy, the Society did not set out expecting to do more than construct the narrative of that experience. But when we realized that it was possible to do much more than that — that it was possible for us to really dig into the data of this event, we knew we had to do it, and we knew that it was going to create something special. Though, we didn’t know how special until we could look at it holistically.
And as interesting as this data is based on its own merits, it is important to remember that each of these data points represents an individual person. And while we can learn much about the 1918 Pandemic in Quincy by looking at the data collectively, we should not lose the individual perspective entirely.
The 1918 Pandemic is the story of immense human tragedy. The spot-map was created partially as an exercise in digital humanities, but it is also meant to be a tool of remembrance and discovery. There are hundreds of human stories contained within it, though they are an incomplete snapshot of the lives they represent, and it is with those individuals in mind that we hope you take the time to explore this exhibit.
Special thanks to the Society’s Executive Director, Dr. Ed Fitzgerald, and volunteers, Nick Drake and Tom Scott, for their significant contributions towards the completion of this project.
Alexandra Elliott
Curator, Quincy Historical Society