Pandemic on the Prairie Kara Heitz

The invisible line that runs through the middle of Kansas City may be an important political boundary, but in 1918, like today, diseases do not respect these human divides. This episode compares the Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO responses to the flu pandemic, including differences in business closures, compliance, and other “social distancing” measures. We’ll also look at the politics behind these differences, especially the operations of the Kansas City, MO democratic political machine connected to the rise of boss Tom Pendergast. What lessons can we learn from the 1918 responses across the state line that are applicable to 21st-century pandemics?

Samuel Crumbine was a physician and public health pioneer known throughout Kansas and the nation for his evidence-based methods of promoting food safety, sanitation, and combating communicable diseases. Many Kansans may still tread on his “Don’t Spit on the Sidewalk” bricks or have heard his catchy “swat the fly” campaign. he also helped Kansas navigate the 1918-1920 flu pandemic as secretary of health. But Crumbine has a “darker” legacy of supporting eugenics policies that imprisoned women infected with STDs in Kansas. We’ll discuss Crumbine’s complicated legacy and how conflicts over public health versus individual rights were as present in 1918 as they are today.

We've been named one of the Top 10 Spanish Flu Podcasts by Feedspot! Check out their list for other great podcasts about the history of the influenza pandemic.

Kansas is home to Haskell Indian Nations University, today the premier institution of higher education for Native Americans in the United States. However, Haskell has a long and complicated history, including experiencing two deadly outbreaks of the 1918 influenza pandemic (as told in Episode 3). In this mini-episode, we talk with Prof. Eric Anderson, chair of the Indigenous and American Indian Studies Department at Haskell Indian Nations University and an expert on the history of the institution. how did a boarding school that for many decades promoted assimilation into Euro-American culture, forcibly stripping students of their indigenous cultures, eventually become a university that celebrates and promotes Indigenous sovereignty and Native American culture in all its diversity?

Just weeks after the March 1918 “first wave” flu outbreak at Camp Funston, the Haskell Institute in Lawrence saw a similar rash of influenza infections. Around one-third of the Native American students were hospitalized, and 17 died. In this episode, we’ll talk to historian Mikaëla Adams about this early outbreak of the 1918 flu at the Haskell Institute. And we’ll examine the larger context of Indian boarding schools in the U.S. and the failure of public health programs for Native Americans. And what can the Haskell Institute experiences tell us about medicine and discrimination in both 1918 and today?

In this mini-episode, we tell the story of Dr. Loring Miner, a physician in Haskell County in southwest Kansas who, in early 1918, may have encountered the first outbreak of the flu pandemic. Dr. Miner was a little different than the stereotypical country doctor. Dr. Miner was "gruff" and one who "didn't suffer fools," but he also was extremely dedicated to his practice, traveling over hundreds of square miles to attend to patients. He loved the classics and read the great works of Greek literature … in Greek! He embraced the germ theory of disease and built a home laboratory complete with a microscope. We'll hear from historian John Barry explain why Dr. Miner was such an unusual doctor given the state of medical education at the time.

Did the deadly 1918-1920 influenza pandemic begin in Kansas? While this pandemic is often called the “Spanish flu”, there is a strong possibility it originated in Camp Funston, a training camp for WWI recruits at Fort Riley. We will follow the paper trail to trace the origins of this theory. So how did it get to Camp Funston? To help answer this question, we’ll talk with historian John Barry about his work on the Kansas origins of the flu pandemic. Finally, we’ll explore the question of why and how it matters where a pandemic started.