Written by: Suzanna Wagner, Program Coordinator, Historic Sites and Museums
If a highly contagious epidemic was spreading through your city, what would you do?
Well, if you were a merchant in Edmonton in 1918, you’d be making sure people are still buying things.
A virulent strain of influenza spread around the world in the fall of 1918, striking once again in fall 1919 and still another time in 1920. Alberta saw more than 31,000 cases of the flu over the fall of 1918 with 4,308 deaths before the flu subsided in May 1919. The illness was often referred to as the “Spanish Flu” because it was mistakenly believed to have originated in Spain.
RETROactive 