What happens when a deadly disease strikes a crowded city? How do people respond? What do they feel and fear?  

Philadelphia suffered greatly from the global influenza pandemic of 1918–19. The city lost nearly 17,500 people over six months and almost 14,000 in just six weeks in the fall of 1918. 

There is no public memorial to the pandemic’s victims here, but their families remembered and mourned them privately.

The stories and memories on this website, passed down through the generations, tell of illness and suffering, death and sorrow—but also of survival and resilience, and love and joy.

The Mütter Museum is grateful to everyone who has shared family memories of the influenza pandemic with us. We invite you to explore these stories and share your own. 

Acknowledgments

Major support for Spit Spreads Death has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, with additional support from the Groff Family Memorial Trust and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Credits 

This website was created in 2020 by the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia as part of Spit Spreads Death: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918–19 in Philadelphia, a special exhibition, artists’ project, and related public programs.

Site Lead and Project Manager
Nancy Hill, Museum Manager

Site Design
Michael Tedeschi, Interactive Mechanics

Content Consultant
Jane E. Boyd, Historical Curator, Spit Spreads Death

Emergency hospital during influenza epidemic, Camp Funston, Kansas, probably early 1918 (NCP 1603) 

Credit: OHA 250: New Contributed Photographs Collection, Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine