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Disease is a particularly potent subset of disaster as it is a silent killer that has not historically been well understood. Due to the mystery surrounding its’ spread, it has incited folklore for centuries. I propose to examine Typhoid Fever in the town of Davidson as a case study for the spread of disease in Gilded Age America. Typhoid, the common name for Salmonella typhi, is a waterborne disease that can cause high fever, rash, and gastrointestinal problems.[1] I will study outbreaks of Typhoid Fever in Davidson, NC from the foundation of the college in 1832 until 1920, when Typhoid Fever vaccinations were more common, thus reducing the morbidity and mortality of the disease.[2] In comparing the treatment of patients and possible outbreaks in a small town setting with those in national data, I will attempt to better understand the way that Americans in this time period viewed disease. More specifically, I will examine the folklore surrounding Typhoid, in Davidson and on the national scale, in order to better understand the views that were held by lay contemporaries of a disease that was not yet commonly understood. I intend to study the folklore surrounding the spread of Typhoid as well as its’ treatment, in addition to the relationship between the prevalence of these ideas in popular literature and their correlation with local and national outbreaks.
I will use resources from the Davidson College Archives as well as information on the disease in other locals within the same period. One particularly interesting source that I have located is a pamphlet published in 1916 entitled “Typhoid Fever and How to Avoid it.” I intend to use this source to gain valuable insight into the commonly held beliefs surrounding the disease, as laid out in a self-help type format, a form that became prevalent during the Gilded Age. I will also examine our class text, Typhoid Mary, to examine one case study of Typhoid in New York at the turn of the century. I intend to use this second case study to examine the treatment of patients and asymptomatic carriers. I will use the literature from the Davidson area to form a case study on the myths surrounding the presumed prevention and treatment of Typhoid Fever during the Gilded Age.