Hampton Roads History Lecture: Spanish Flu in Hampton Roads

Join us for a virtual lecture with author and historian John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center. Quarstein will give a presentation live from his home in Hampton, Virginia, about how the Spanish Flu in 1918 greatly impacted the Hampton Roads area.

Viewers are welcome to send him any comments or questions during the presentation, and John will answer them following his talk. 

About the lecture: The second greatest pandemic in world history was the Spanish Flu. Similar to the current COVID-19 virus, the Spanish Flu violently attacked the respiratory system often leading to death. This breed of flu was deadliest during 1918 to 1919. Soldiers serving during World War I helped to spread the disease back and forth from America to Europe. In October 1918, a record 195,000 Americans died from the flu and by the end of 1919, more than 670,000 Americans had perished. This horrific pandemic killed between 20 to 50 million world wide. Without a vaccine, how did the citizens of Hampton Roads, filled with shipyards and soldiers moving overseas and then back again, work to defend against this plague?