Coronavirus 2020? Nope. The Speckled Monster of 1764
byIn January 1764, a “speckled monster” struck Boston, forcing businesses to shutter and residents to isolate themselves in their homes or flee the city…
Smallpox
Lessons from an Outbreak: Smallpox in the Hudson Highlands, 1781
byOn January 20, 1781, near New Windsor in the Hudson Highlands of New York, Dr. Samuel Adams wrote a brief entry in the diary…
This Week on Dispatches: Geoff Smock on the Influence of the Enlightenment on Thomas Jefferson
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews teacher and JAR contributor Geoff Smock on Thomas Jefferson’s enlightenment-influenced views on pandemics, the French Revolution, Shays’…
Memorial Day: Recovering the Service of William Tiller, American Soldier
byEvery now and then, one comes across a pension application of an old soldier that includes extraordinary detail. Occasionally the application includes a journal…
This Week on Dispatches: Katie Turner Getty on Combating the Spread of Disease Eighteenth-Century Style
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews attorney and JAR associate editor Katie Turner Getty on the use of smoke to fumigate refugees from…
2
Smoking the Smallpox Sufferers
byAt about midnight on September 29, 1792, Ashley Bowen and his young assistant, Tucker Huy, heard a carriage clatter up the Boston Road and…