Research: 1918 Influenza Pandemic

This project involves reading the newspapers of either Seattle, Tacoma, or Portland in the fall of 1918 when the pandemic struck the region. You will write about the experience of one of these cities and also think about the journalism of a century ago compares with the journalism of today.

The assignment has three parts: (1) You will choose a city and read the local newspaper from September 1918 through January 1919 to learn about the impact of the flu and strategies for combating it and to observe the journalism and reporting of that era. How did it compare with reporting today? List and describe at least 20 articles in the excel spreadsheet you will download below; (2) You will read the recommended secondary sources; (3) You will write an 8+ page paper about your subject using information from both the secondary and primary sources.

  Primary source research (newspapers):

   1) Begin by downloading this project database_hstaa353-excel.xlsx Download project database_hstaa353-excel.xlsx

2) We are using a database of newspapers available through UW Libraries for this project. You must be logged into the library web portal with your UW NetID to gain access. Below are links to three PNW newspapers"

Seattle Times: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/apps/readex/results?p=EANX&t=pubname%3A127D718D1E33F961%21Seattle%2BDaily%2BTimes&sort=YMD_date%3AA&fld-nav-0=YMD_date&val-nav-0=6-1-1918%20-%201-1-1919&fld-base-0=alltext&val-base-0=influenza Links to an external site.

Portland Oregonian: https://infoweb-newsbank-com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/apps/readex/results?p=EANX&t=pubname%3A11A73E5827618330%21Oregonian&sort=YMD_date%3AA&fld-nav-0=YMD_date&val-nav-0=6-1-1918%20-%201-1-1919&f=advanced&val-base-0=influenza&fld-base-0=ocrtext Links to an external site.

           Select year 1918. Begin reading September 29. You can move page by page or use the filters to search for              the terms "influenza" and "flu."

Other newspapers from Olympia, Pullman, Colville, and the Seattle Star:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?date1=1918&rows=20&searchType=basic&state=Washington&date2=1919&proxtext=influenza&y=14&x=15&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1&sort=relevance Links to an external site.

3) Secondary sources:

Read this Ebook: American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic Links to an external site.by Nancy Bristow

Read the relevant articles on

on the University of Michigan's 1918 Influenza Digital Archive Links to an external site.

Instructions

4) Use both the book and your newspaper research in your paper

5) Turn in both the database and your paper