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 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.
“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.
Source 2 - Image
Source 2 - Image
July 4 parade, Western Maine Sanatorium
ca. 1929
Maine Historical Society 23634
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. Note the masks on the faces of the people in the parade! Why do you think they are wearing them?
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. Sanatoriums were designed to both help contain the spread of tuberculosis and to treat (and possibly even cure) patients.
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 medical developments.
Source 3 - Image
Source 3 - Image
Cony High School female students
ca. 1931
Maine State Museum 98.78.656.2
This image from the Kennebec Journal shows a group of female students at Cony High School in Augusta, Maine. The students are supporting an annual Christmas Seal sale benefitting tuberculosis patients. The women wore caps with a double-barred cross symbol which was the international symbol of the fight against TB.
The first American Christmas Seals were sold by a woman named Emily Bissell in 1907 for a penny each. Seals were special holiday labels put on mail to raise money for tuberculosis sanatoriums and other charitable causes. Christmas Seals are still sold today by the American Lung Association and other charitable groups.
Saturday, Oct 12, 1918
Dear Mother: –
I’m in Louisville again this week-end and am staying at the YMCA for the night. I have a nice clean room all to myself and it does seem good to be quiet and rest for a while. I was lucky to get a pass this week and for only 10% of the company were allowed to go. I had a good excuse, tho– to get my hat reblocked. The other day the captain said it was the worst that he ever saw so he was glad enough to let me come to town to have it fixed. It really looks like new now. I had a good supper when I got here. It was nearly 5 before I left camp. We worked all day–three hours of exams this morning, then cleaning up the barrack and moving some materiel down on the drill field. I found out I could go on pass at 3 o’clock but had to stay and make some mechanical drawings of parts of the 3 in. gun which took me a good hour.
I called up the Munn’s tonight and am going out there to dinner tomorrow. Isn’t it dandy of them to be so nice to me. The churches are all closed tomorrow on account of the flu. It is quite bad in the city as well as at camp. We still have our two medical inspections daily. There ae not many new cases in our own battery just now. They have taken a whole section of barracks for a temporary hospital and are treating light cases there. The fellow named Cobb from Portland Oregon whom I told you about in one of my letters died last week with it. He was a dandy fellow– was married and had a little family – two children I think. It’s nice you can have Lib home for a few days. Your telling about getting up that dandy supper for them made me decidedly homesick for we eat in the worst kind of way just now. So many cooks are sick we have joined three batteries (500 men) together for mess. We have to use our old mess kits and stand in line a long time. The food is family good– when you get it, but you only get about half enough. Did I tell you I had gained 8 lbs since I came here?
That doesn’t speak as if I were starving to death, does it? Where we have so little time to ourselves at noon, it makes it hard to spend so much time in line. Often we go over for mess at 11:45– just as soon as we are back from drill and don’t get there till 12:15 – ten minutes before we are due to fall in again. These precious 10 min. also have to be spent in shining shoes for we have an inspection the first thing after dinner.
There is an extra just out that the gunmans have accepted Wilson’s terms but I don’t believe it. I hope the war wont be settled that way but will be decided on the battle front. The fellows here are already worrying for fear they wont get their commissions. That is the least of my troubles – if war will only end, I don’t care a rap about a commission.
Reveille has been changed from 5:30 to 5:45 fifteen more minutes to sleep in the morning now. So far the two mornings the new rule has been enforce, I have been up at 5:15 to shave before reveille.
I had a dandy box of chocolates from Connie this week. I sure did enjoy them for anything sweet is a novelty around camp. The Flu makes it impossible to get to a canteen to buy even a cake of sweet chocolate.
One of the fellows near me had some jelly sent him this week and another fellow some crackers. A crowd of 5 or 6 of us had a feed on them the other night which was lots of fun. It seemed just like college once more.
Well it is more than bedtime and since I’m tired out with the week’s work I believe I’ll say good–night to all my dear family and run up-stairs to bed. Here’s a kiss for you, my dear. X
Love to all,
Sum.
P.S. George St. John is in the same Battery with
me still. He lets me read his Express once
in a while when it comes – 3 days late.
S –
Source 4 - Document
Source 4 - Document
Sumner Cobb letter
ca. 1918
Maine State Historical Society 1022300
This is a letter Sumner Cobb wrote to his family in Maine. He wrote from Camp Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky in 1918. Sumner was born in Gorham, Maine in 1895 and was around 22-23 years old when he wrote this letter.
Sumner was one of three brothers who all served in World War I. His brothers were William and Herbert. Both William and Herbert fought in the war outside of the United States while Sumner remained in America. Sumner was stationed at two military bases during his time in the army: Camp Devens in Massachusetts and Camp Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.
Sumner didn’t face dangers of overseas fighting and life in the trenches. However, he was at risk of contracting the Spanish Flu. It was spreading throughout the United States at the end of the war. The disease spread quickly in military camps where soldiers lived close together. He wrote about it a lot in his letters home between September and October 1918.
By the sound of the letters, Sumner did not become sick with the flu during his time in the army. Sumner and William both survived the war, but Herbert was killed on October 14, 1918 just one month before the end of the war on November 11.
Source 5 - Document
Source 5 - Document
Sanitorium Weekly Menu
916
From Reports of the Maine State Sanitoriums 1915-1916
Maine State Library
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.
Source 6 - Image
Source 6 - Image
Central Maine Sanatorium — Women’s Ward
From Reports of the Maine State Sanitoriums 1915-1916
ca. 1916
Maine State Library
This photograph shows the women’s ward of the Central Maine Sanatorium in 1915 or 1916. This was one of three state-operated tuberculosis treatment facilities in Maine. It was located in Fairfield, Maine, and was designated for the sickest patients (while more healthy patients went to the Western or Northern Maine Sanatoriums).
Today, state-run facilities like this are uncommon in the United States. Most patients are treated in hospitals. While they existed, sanatoriums like this had an impact on how people thought about their civic duty during pandemics.
With spaces like sanatoriums where sick patients could isolate from anyone that was healthy, we know that people realized it was an important way to keep other people from getting sick. There was a culture of quarantine. Today, it has become less common to have spaces that are built just for the purpose of isolation and quarantine.
Pandemic Primary Source Sets developed in collaboration between the Maine Historical Society, Maine State Archives, Maine State Library, and Maine State Museum.
