Influenza Epidemic of 1918 at WSU"The items in this collection are housed in Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections in the Terrell Library.
The 1918 Influenza had a dramatic impact on WSU and Pullman. As part of military build-up for World War I, the WSU campus had swelled with 1,325 Student Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.) cadets. Of this group, there were some 600 influenza cases and 42 deaths. R. S. Sanborn, the father of a S.A.T.C student who died, accused the WSU of negligence, a charge which was investigated by the Governor and the board of regents. Among the 700 WSU students who were not involved in the S.A.T.C., there were 75 cases and no deaths. In 1918, Pullman had a population of some 3,000 of whom 150 caught the influenza and three died. In addition to the campus hospital, the Gymnasium, Wilson Hall, Ferry Hall, and the Mechanical Arts Building, served as temporary hospitals. Three churches (Christian Church, St. James, and the Federated Church) also served as hospitals. Miss Agnes H. Craig, head of the College of Home Economics, along with the entire home economics faculty, aided by sixty-two women students, prepared special diets for the ill students. When the epidemic was at its worst, they prepared over 900 meals per day, and by the end of it all they had served over 17,000 meals.
The following time line provides a chronological overview of epidemic. The documents selected for this project come from the Papers of President Holland and the WSU University Publications Collection."