Grey Roots Museum and Archives latest exhibit brings visitors back to 1918 and the time of the Spanish Flu.
Today’s COVID-19 pandemic has certainly made some people curious about the widespread illness the gripped the world over 100 years ago and this new mini-exhibit: Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases, explores the devastating impact of the 1918 global pandemic on citizens of Grey County.
Grey Roots’ Stephanie McMullen says, “In the exhibit itself you’ll see some pictures of people and places in Grey County that were impacted by Spanish Flu. You’ll also see some of the home remedies that people tried. There was no treatment for Spanish Flu but of course it’s so contagious and it’s so deadly that when people start becoming sick with a respiratory illness of any description, they are desperately grabbing whatever promises to bring relief and to bring a cure.”
She says the exhibit has some examples of those remedies on display as well as items that belonged to people who helped deal with the flu and also of those who suffered or died from it.
McMullen says Grey County suffered a proportional number of deaths to the rest of Canada during the Spanish Flu, “We don’t have a precise number, and one of the challenges simply becomes how a death was recorded.” (Canada had about 55,000 deaths).
While not in Grey County, Tara was hit particularly hard by the Spanish Flu, “It’s right on the County border, so we actually included a little piece about Tara in the exhibit because they converted the old British Hotel to a hospital in Tara in order to help deal with all of the people who had fallen ill,” says McMullen.
She explains, “In a horse and buggy era, Tara becomes a focal point for all of the surrounding townships in Bruce County and Grey County. You’re going to go to Tara if that’s your closest place regardless of which county you’re living in.”
Of course, Owen Sound was also hit hard along with Meaford, Eugenia, Flesherton and Markdale and McMullen notes, there was no place in Grey County that didn’t have cases of the Spanish Flu.
McMullen sees some strong similarities between today’s pandemic and the on in 1918, “Some of the things that struck me were that it was highly contagious, it was very deadly and al ot of the measures like closing businesses and closing schools and wearing masks and isolating and the fact that there was no cure for Spanish flu, really struck me as being enormous similarities to what we’re living in today.”
She notes some of the differences are how advanced science has become since then, “One of the things that we are lucky enough to have in the 21st century is although there’s no cure for COVID, the supportive care that can be offered to someone with COVID is far superior and I’m sure has saved lives that just was not available in 1918.”
McMullen says back in 1918 they even had mask recommendations, “Their minds were in the right spot,” says McMullen but she explains, “They didn’t understand how to use a mask to try to filter the virus and so they were recommending using things like cheesecloth.” (A net / mesh like fabric).
McMullen points out the local impact the Spanish Flu had on people, noting the way the Wells family was devastated by the loss of Clara Wells of Markdale, who died from the Spanish Flu and left behind seven children and a husband who was serving overseas (WWI), “We focused on them as an example of the kind of devastation that a pandemic can cause on a family,” says McMullen.
The Wells children were taken to an orphanage in Owen Sound until their father returned from overseas, and the babies of the family were adopted out.
McMullen notes, back in 1918, gender roles were generally very different “If you lose mom, then it’s really hard to keep a family together, especially if you have a family with many children and some of them are just babies.”
The exhibit will be up until May 2021.
