Using Evidence
- Remember the four categories of reading primary sources:
o Origin and context
o Meaning
o Argument
o Reading like a historian
- To find useful evidence you first need a historical question to
answer: what are you trying to figure out?
- Then, look to the sources you have individually: what
information could each of them contribute to an answer to the
question?
- Next, look at your sources in relation to one another. Does
putting them together reveal any additional evidence? Can you
identify any patterns or parallels?
- Finally, consider what additional evidence you need, or would be
helpful, to more fully answer the question. Where might you find
it?
Remember that all answers to historical questions are contingent on
available evidence, and can always be modified if/when additional
evidence comes to light.
The Second Group Assignment is focused on using evidence. To complete the assignment, you will need to consult the Using Evidence guide, which is attached as a PDF.
In this assignment, you are going to use your Group Discussion Board to describe how you could use evidence from at least two different sources to address a historical question. Once you have read the following instructions and are ready to begin writing your submission, click on "Reply" below to compose your initial post.
Here are the instructions:
· First, select AT LEAST TWO primary sources from Primary Source Project 20 (which follows Chapter 20 in your textbook):
· 20.6 Philadelphia Inquirer Describes the Crisis, 1918
· 20.7 A Letter from a Native American, Volunteer Nurse, 1918
· 20.8 Advertisement to Stop Influenza, 1918
· 20.9 Dr. A. Wilberforce Williams on Fake Influenza Remedies, 1918
· 20.10 U.S. Public Health Service Information on Influenza, 1919
· Next, looking at the Using Evidence guide, you'll see you need a historical question to answer. Here it is: How did different Americans react to the 1918 influenza pandemic?
· NOTE: The point of this assignment is to gather evidence from the sources that could be used to help address the question. Thus, do not jump directly to answering the question; instead, gather evidence from the sources that could help a historian answer the question.
· Then, following the steps on the Using Evidence guide, write at least 100 words for each of your sources addressing this question: What information or evidence could this source contribute to an answer to the question?
· After that, write at least 100 words addressing this question: What information or evidence could these sources contribute to an answer to the question when considered together? For instance, are there any patterns or parallels among them, or any significant differences or contrasts?
·
· Primary Source Project 20
· The Challenges of the 1918–1919 Influenza Pandemic
· Explain how the influenza pandemic affected the United States and evaluate how Americans coped with it.
· Before 1918, the United States had experienced out
eaks of diseases such as yellow fever, smallpox, cholera, and influenza. The influenza pandemic that swept through the nation and circled the globe during World War I was among the worst. More American soldiers died from this viral infection than did from gunfire, bomb blasts, and poison gas attacks on the battlefields of Europe. U.S. troops returning home transmitted the disease to civilians around the country. The United States recorded some 675,000 deaths, a tiny fraction of the estimated fifty million deaths throughout the world. The death rate from the disease among fifteen to thirty-four-year-olds was twenty times higher in 1918 than in previous years. As a result, the average life span in the U.S. dropped by ten years. This devastating illness attacked political leaders such as President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt as well as millions of ordinary people.
· At the time, the disease was known as the “Spanish Flu” or the “Grippe.” Spain became stigmatized as the origin of the influenza pandemic because it remained neutral during World War I and, unlike the combatants, did not restrict its press from reporting about the spread of the disease (Source XXXXXXXXXXIn fact, the out
eak most likely started in Kansas and spread to military bases in Boston and Philadelphia (Source XXXXXXXXXXNeither the United States nor any other nation in the world fully understood the nature of the contagion and was unprepared to cope with it. Scientists knew a good deal about bacterial infections but were just learning about viruses. Medical doctors concocted treatments; most caused little harm and a few provided a bit of relief. Seeking to profit by feeding on anxiety and inadequate knowledge, patent medicine companies and pharmacies peddled supposed cures to gullible consumers (Sources 20.8 and 20.9). The war caused a shortage of medical personnel, and the country relied heavily on nurses and medical students to take up the slack (Source XXXXXXXXXXAs they did in other areas on the home front, women played a major role in combating the wartime pandemic.
· The United States lacked national leadership in coping with the health crisis. President Wilson was burdened first with the war and then negotiating the peace. Over the course of the pandemic, the U.S. Public Health Service learned many valuable lessons, but it left decisions mainly to local governments. They, in turn, did their best to recommend wearing masks in public, avoiding crowds, refraining from spitting on sidewalks, and staying home (Source XXXXXXXXXXThese suggestions were not always followed. Soldiers had to travel to ca
y out their duties, and people had to go to work to earn a living (in the absence of any economic assistance from the federal government). Moreover, some local leaders acted prematurely by allowing public gatherings and parades. As much as they could, Americans went about their daily lives with the disease very much on their minds. In 1918, children jumped rope to the rhyme: “I had a little bird. Its name was Enza. I opened the window, And in-flu-enza.” Without a vaccine, the disease did manage to run its course by 1920, though not before leaving numerous children as orphans and many Americans suspicious of engaging with the rest of the world.
Source 20.6
Philadelphia Inquirer Describes the Crisis, 1918
In early September 1918, the Navy shipped 300 sailors, unknowingly ca
ying the influenza virus, from Boston to Philadelphia. Despite the subsequent out
eak of the flu among the sailors and the civilian population and ignoring medical advice, city officials refused to postpone a Liberty Loan concert and parade on September 28. These festivities attracted crowds of some 200,000 people, and within five weeks, more than 12,000 residents died. The following excerpt from the Philadelphia Inquirer describes the difficulties that plagued the city and shows how women were essential as frontline health workers. The Emergency Aid of Pennsylvania, a women’s volunteer organization, mobilized its members to help make up for the shortage of nurses.
The return of deaths yesterday from Spanish influenza, as well as the number of new cases was greater than on any single day since the out
eak of the epidemic in this city. In the civilian population of Philadelphia the number of deaths reported yesterday was 254, of which 159 were directly due to influenza and 95 due to pneumonia superinduced by influenza. The number of new cases reported was 1480.
… Director Wilmer Krusen of the Department of Health and Charities, yesterday announced that forty nurses at the Philadelphia Hospital had
oken down from the result of strain of overwork in caring for influenza patients at that institution. Director Krusen has made an appeal for volunteer nurses to fill in for the emergency. He stated that good use can be made at the hospital of student nurses having from a year or two of training; and said that all student nurses, so qualified, would be accepted…. Director Krusen announced that the wholesale drug houses of the city will be open today and deliver to hospitals all essential drugs for the treatment of influenza.
In this desperate crisis, the Emergency Aid [calls] on all its members to give their personal assistance in the care of the sick in the hospitals, All members who are free from the care of the sick at home and who are in good physical condition themselves are asked to report at the headquarters….
Source: “Influenza Increase Due to Late Reports,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 1918, 13.
Source 20.7
A Letter from a Native American, Volunteer Nurse, 1918
The first reported out
eak of influenza came in March 1918 in Haskell County, Kansas, which lies just west of the old cattle town of Dodge City. Haskell contained the United States Indian Industrial Training School, which offered an educational cu
iculum to assimilate Native Americans. One of its graduates, Lutiant Van Wert, who was working for the Department of Interior in Washington, D.C., volunteered to serve as a nurse at an army base in Virginia, as one of the many women signing up to help during the pandemic. She shares her experiences with her friend Louise living in Haskell. World War I had not yet ended and conspiracy theories abounded. In her letter, Lutiant shares a false story, which she believed, that German spies posed as physicians and were infecting soldiers.
Dear friend Louise:
… Katherine and I just returned last Sunday evening from Camp Humphrey “Somewhere in Virginia” where we volunteered to help nurse soldiers sick with the Influenza….
All nurses were required to work twelve hours a day — we worked from seven in the morning to seven at night, with only a short time for luncheon and dinner.
Believe me, we were always glad when night came because we sure did get tired. We had the actual Practical [sic] nursing to do — just like the other nurses had, and were given a certain number of wards with three or four patients in each to look after. Our chief duties were to give medicines to the patients, take temperatures, fix ice packs, feed them at “eating time,” rub their back or chest with camphorated sweet oil, make egg-nogs, and a whole string of other things I can’t begin to name. I liked the work just fine, but it was too hard, not being used to it. When I was in the Officer’s [sic] ba
acks, four of the officers of whom I had charge, died. Two of them were ma
ied and called for their wife nearly all the time. It was sure pitiful to see them die, I was right in the wards alone with them each time, and Oh! The first one that died sure unnerved me — I had to go to the nurses’ quarters and cry it out…. Really Louise, Orderlies [sic] ca
ied the dead soldiers out on stretchers at the rate of two every three hours for the first two days [we]were there. Two German spies, posing as doctors, were caught giving these Influenza germs to the soldiers and they were shot last Saturday at sunrise….
Source: Letter from Lutiant Van Wert to Louise, October 17, 1918, National Archives at Kansas City, Record Group 75.
Source 20.8
Advertisement to Stop Influenza, 1918
With medical scientists unable to come up with a vaccine for the flu and doctors only able to treat the symptoms with available but insufficient treatments, enterprising — though not always honest — businesses sought to fill the void by advertising and selling “miracle drugs.” One such cure-all was Miller’s Antiseptic Oil, commonly called Snake Oil. A Nashville, Tennessee drug company claimed the concoction would relieve and even cure influenza, as well as a variety of other illnesses. The cost was minimal, but from one supposed testimonial, the reward was huge. Even more respectable companies, which survive to this day, such as the makers of Lysol and Vicks VapoRub, also promised that their products could help prevent a person from catching the disease if used properly.
There seems to be no question but that Miller’s Antiseptic Oil, (known as Snake Oil) when ru
ed on the throat and chest well greased, also inhaled thru the nose has saved thousands of lives by preventing Influenza and pneumonia. And in use by those who have already contacted the disease, Miller’s Antiseptic Oil seems to make them well and strong again in no time at all.
Mr. E. E. Collins of Lyles, Tenn., writes as follows: Enclosed find 50c for a bottle of Snake Oil. A 30c bottle used by all three of my family who had Influenza certainly fixed us up. I give it full credit. I run a dormitory at an alcohol plant where there is a good deal of Influenza. Have tried Snake Oil on several cases and they have been relieved and made well again. Where doctors have lost lots of patients, we have not lost a single one.
Miller’s Antiseptic Oil (known as Snake Oil) is the great pain medicine —
ings almost instant relief to any kind of ache or pain such as rheumatism, neuralgia, lumbago, colds, grippe, etc. Money back if not satisfied. For sale by DeMoville-Page-Sims Drug Co., Nashville, Tenn. (adv.)
Source: “Says It Stops Influenza,” The Tennessean, November 26, 1918, 9
Source 20.9
Dr. A. Wilberforce Williams on Fake Influenza Remedies, 1918
Although medical doctors often improvised their own treatments, they remained on the lookout for quacks who prescribed remedies that pledged to prevent or cure influenza. Physicians would have