Smallpox! 1913

Abstract

Three students stand on the overhang above the door to the men’s dormitory, holding a sign which is not legible. The photo appears in the scrapbook of Lydia Buttoph, Class of 1916, and is captioned “Smallpox! 1913.” After one student became sick with smallpox, the students in the men’s dorm were required to be vaccinated or they would otherwise have to quarantine.

According to an April 23, 1913 Kalamazoo Gazette article, “The fourth floor of the men’s dormitory is being made ready for occupancy, where any new smallpox patient will be taken, should another case break out. The lower floors are to be fumigated, thus lessening the danger of contagion, and spreading of the disease.”