Haunting Colorized Photos Reveal The Devastation Caused By The Spanish Flu Which Killed At Least Fifty-Million

A Kansas hospital during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 that still lives large in people’s imaginations.

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These seldom seen photographs, colorized for the first time, graphically depict the scale of the pandemic. The images reveal how doctors and nurses fought to save Spanish Flu sufferers in 1918. They show community centers and sports halls in the US converted into makeshift hospitals for the sick, while cinemas were closed and people wore face masks when they went to the park or took public transport.

h/t: vintag.es, thedailymail

Hospital beds crammed head to toe at the San Francisco Naval Training Station. They are occupied by soldiers.

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“I have been colorizing for a long time as a hobby, which I started by coloring pictures for my family and friends, but my passion has grown into almost an obsession,” the colorizer, who wishes to remain anonymous, said in an interview. “It’s been over one-hundred years since the Spanish flu happened and I thought it was important to remember the millions of people who lost their lives.”

The disease, which broke out after the First World War, spread quickly and ravaged the globe, claiming between 20 million and 50 million lives.

Theatres and public spaces were shut down to help prevent the virus spreading in the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918.

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A mask is worn by a street sweeper in New York in 1918. The admonition of the New York Health Board to wear masks to check the spread of influenza epidemic was: ‘Better ridiculous than dead’.

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A conductor checks to see if potential passengers are wearing required masks in Seattle, 1918.

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Masks and cloths of all persuasions were worn to help protect the wearer from the killer virus. It claimed between 20million to 50million lives during the outbreak.

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American Red Cross nurse aiding wounded soldiers at Montmirail, France, May 31, 1918.

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Red Cross surgeons pick up stretchers to help treat the ill in St Louis during the Spanish flu pandemic.

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Old gymnasium filled with troops returning home from World War One re-used as an emergency Spanish Flu hospital.

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Doctors and nurses treat soldiers returning home from the front lines of World War One, where the virus began to spread.

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Teachers tend to children sick with Spanish Flu at Collège La Salle in Thetford Mines, Quebec, Canada.

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Red Cross nurses in Washington demonstrate patient care during the outbreak by carrying one on a stretcher into a car.

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