How do people carry on with life during a pandemic?

This is a photo of four patients at the Western Maine Sanatorium in Hebron identified as, front, from left, Carron and “His Nibs” (Merle Wadleigh) and rear, Gill and Lehman (Arthur Lehman). Merle Wadleigh of Portland kept the album while he was a patient at the tuberculosis sanatorium. He labeled the photo “The Four Horsemen or Four Aces.” He wrote on the back, “July 1928, The four horsemen, This was taken when I was in Reception. I weighed 140. This is the one that I sent you a piece of before.”

The Western Maine Sanatorium was a tuberculosis treatment facility that opened in 1904 as a private sanatorium and was purchased by the state in 1915. Tuberculosis is a disease caused by a bacteria that usually attacks the lungs, but that can also damage other parts of the body.

By the beginning of the 19th century, tuberculosis— also referred to as “consumption”— had killed one in seven of all people that had ever lived, but by the first half of the 20th century it was a disease that could be controlled and cured.

“The four horsemen” is a reference to the four horsemen of the apocalypse, figures in the New Testament of the Bible. The four horse riders represent pestilence (disease), war, famine, and death. This was probably a morbid inside joke between friends.

This is a photo of a July 4 parade with elaborate floats and a variety of costumed participants that was a tradition at the Western Maine Sanatorium at Hebron. Patients who were well enough could participate in the parade and games and other events that followed. Others watched from the sleeping porches at their cottages.

The Western Maine Sanatorium was a tuberculosis treatment facility that opened in 1904 as a private sanatorium and was purchased by the state in 1915. It was one of three state-operated tuberculosis facilities.

Tuberculosis is a disease caused by a bacteria that usually attacks the lungs, but that can also damage other parts of the body. By the beginning of the 19th century, tuberculosis— also referred to as “consumption”— had killed one in seven of all people that had ever lived, but by the first half of the 20th century it was a disease that could be controlled and cured thanks to development of streptomycin and other antibiotics. Sanatoriums were designed to both help contain the spread of tuberculosis by segregating those who were infected and to treat (and possibly even cure) patients.

This page shows the full menu for June 11-15, 1916. This menu was used in one of Maine’s state-run sanatoriums. People who were sick with tuberculosis lived and received treatment in these facilities for days, months, or years.

Treatments included some things that both sick and healthy people benefit from, such as exercise and healthy food. The meals in these sanatoriums were carefully planned to try to give patients the nutrients and calories they needed to help their bodies deal with disease.