SMALLPOX PATIENT AT A LIVINGSTON PEST HOUSE
A series of photographs showing the treatment of a patient suffering from smallpox at a “pest house” in Livingston, Montana. These isolation facilities, often located near graveyards or at the edge of communities, could be found in many towns at the turn of the last century to house people with communicable diseases.
Over thousands of years, smallpox killed hundreds of millions of people, making it known as one of the deadliest diseases known to humans. It is also one of the only human diseases to have been eradicated, declared so in 1980, a significant achievement realized through childhood immunization programs and targeted surveillance and containment strategies. Smallpox was deadly and gruesome. Symptoms included high fever, vomiting, and mouth sores, followed by fluid-filled lesions on the whole body. Death would come suddenly, often within two weeks, and survivors could be left with permanent scars, such as blindness and infertility.
This series of four cabinet cards dating from the early 1900s show a patient covered in lesions. According to a caption written on the verso, one image includes Dr. William F. Cogswell (1868-1956), who served with the Montana State Board of Health from 1912 to 1946 and was a strong advocate for mandatory smallpox vaccination.
The images are in very good condition. Item #80030
Price: $300.00