Yellow Fever season
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
Try to imagine life in 1839 New Orleans.
[Volunteer transcription project.]
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RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
Comments
Life was much different then. Didn't yellow fever affect Philadelphia as well?
Didn't the Philadelphia mint also have this same problem?
1947-P & D; 1948-D; 1949-P & S; 1950-D & S; and 1952-S.
Any help locating any of these OBW rolls would be gratefully appreciated!
Yep. It only lasted a couple of months. In New Orleans it was all summer and into November.
New Orleans Coiner Rufus Tyler succumbed to yellow fever on September 8, 1839. His family was in New Orleans and all took ill.
The Mint closed for a time in 1838 as well.
Great story and research. Worthy of a repeat.
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/985504/yellow-fever-had-a-substantial-impact-on-new-orleans-and-philadelphia-mints
Lance.
And, of course, on the general populace of those cities and many others as well.
My sister in law is going out of the country on a mission trip and the group is required to get vaccinated for yellow fever. Somewhat ironically, the disease is so rare in this country now that the vaccine is very difficult to locate, and many of the group had to travel long distances out of state to be vaccinated.
The advances in medical science certainly have improved life in general. Life was a real gamble back in those times. While so many diseases have been conquered/controlled, we see others become visible. Though likely not new, the other afflictions masked their existence. Cheers, RickO
Remember the other thread where it was talked about the Northerners not wanting to be in New Orleans in the summertime?
I grew up in Michigan. The Winters sucked, but we did not have Yellow Fever there. Or alligators.
But you have plenty of mosquitos, at least in da UP, eh Capt?
The producer of the only yellow fever vaccine licensed in the US (YF-Vax) is out until later this year. A substitute, Stamaril, which is in use elsewhere in the world, and has been for some time, is available here and there, hence the difficulty finding it. CDC lists a bunch of places that normally carry YF-Vax, but very few have Stamaril, apparently. My daughter just had to get vaccinated for an upcoming dig in Niger and there was only two places in Chicago that had it.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
And deer flies, ya hey!
Yes, an epidemic of shut down the Philadelphia Mint and whole city for that matter three or four times in the 1790s and the early 1800s. Joseph Wright, who was the first Chief Engraver / die maker died of it in September 1793. Some copper collectors think that Wright was one of the most talented die makers in mint history.
His best known numismatic work was the 1793 Liberty Cap cents. He also made the dies for the Light Horse Harry Lee Comitia Americana medal (A Revolutionary War military award). Both of those dies broke and a limited number of numismatic items were made from them. Here is an example of the General Lee medal that was struck from the obverse die in the 1870s. There was only a limited number of these pieces struck.
@RogerB- Thanks for the typed transcript,. These sort of things are great reminders for people as to what times use to be like and how lucky we are today.
Many people, including myself and many people from Gen X, Gen Y and millenials never saw what the polio epidemic or yellow fever or any of the now close to extinct diseases (in the US anyway) look like first hand now that we get vaccinated. People take herd immunity for granted these days and don't realize how vaccines have changed humanity for the better.
Now with the anti-vaxxer movement, these preventable diseases are making a big comeback. It is also worth noting that 2018 is the 100th anniversary of the Spanish Flu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic).
@ShadyDave....having had polio myself, I can assure everybody on here that you do not want your children or grandchildren to get it. Get the vaccination.
My great grandmother and my then two year old uncle got the flu that year, my great grandmother had been hospitalized for about six months as a result. My uncle succumbed during the summer of 1918.
So much has been learned in the past 100+ years. Today yellow fever is probably non existent in the US.
My Great-Grandfather died in 1879 from, of all things, appendicitis. My Grandfather died in 1954 from the same malady. The flu killed millions every year.
So much we have to give thanks for, including a long life.
bob
RE: "Thanks for the typed transcript,. These sort of things are great reminders for people as to what times use to be like and how lucky we are today."
For proper credit, the transcript was prepared by one of the volunteers in the Numismatic Transcript Project. These are coin collectors who donate their time and talent to decipher and transcribe manuscript US Mint documents. Their work is gradually opening new views of US numismatic and economic history. Thank You ! (Anyone who would like to give transcription a try, just send me a PM.)