This example of what today we would call pandemic planning is just one of the remarkable documents contained in British Online Archives’ new collection, Pandemics, Society, and Public Health, 1517–1925. This focuses on diseases that have had a significant impact on British society.City, University of London
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Charting the course and consequences of pandemics over five centuries, Pandemics, Society, and Public Health, 1517–1925, collates archival materials relating primarily to the history of the UK. The collection concentrates on four diseases that have left a significant mark upon British history: plague, cholera, smallpox, and influenza.
This collection boasts over 79,000 images, meticulously sourced from four leading UK archives: The National Archives, British Library, University College London, and The London Archives. It has been curated along thematic lines—economics and disease, control measures, international relations, medicine and vaccination, and public responses. Owing to the complexity and sensitivity of this material, academics, archivists, and museum professionals were consulted throughout the curatorial process.
The collection opens with sources relating to the first state-mandated quarantine in England in 1517. It concludes with documentation regarding the devastating effects of the 1918 influenza pandemic (often referred to as the “Spanish Flu" pandemic). The material is rich and diverse. You will come across prayers to help safeguard populations from plague, records of attempts to transmit smallpox via infected letters, prosecutions of those failing to comply with government-imposed quarantines, registers of patented designs featuring vaccination and sanitation equipment, and sheet music to boost morale during the influenza pandemic that followed the First World War. This collection likewise contains sources drawn from the papers of some of the most influential figures in medical and social history, such as Edward Jenner, Edwin Chadwick, Florence Nightingale, and John Snow.
Given the eclectic nature of the material that it brings together, and its expansive chronological scope, Pandemics, Society, and Public Health, 1517–1925, will appeal to students, educators, and researchers working within a variety of scholarly fields, from the history of science and the history of medicine, to cultural and social history.
Responses to pandemics over four centuries
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Written by Roger Dixon and published on 16 June 1665, this broadsheet details ways to avoid the plague and how to treat it if necessary. Composed “for the common good”, it describes various medicinal concoctions that people could prepare, such as boiling “Carduus Benedictus, Scabious and Butter–bur roots…in posset drink” to treat malignant fevers.
Alfred Power’s Sanitary Rhymes (1871) was dedicated to Edwin Chadwick, whose research into urban sanitary conditions led to the passing of the Public Health Act in 1848. Power’s rhymes reiterated the significance of clean air and water, a good diet, hygienic waste disposal, and personal cleanliness to guard against infectious diseases, particularly cholera.
Just like the recent COVID-19 pandemic, smallpox outbreaks placed great strain upon hospitals. This document (image 188) includes designs for a dedicated smallpox hospital in Barry, Wales. The plans detail the proposed wards, mortuary, and observation block. The building was to have built-in air shafts, evidencing how contemporaries were conscious of the relationship between ventilation and the spread of diseases like smallpox.
In response to the influenza pandemic that began in 1918, the Ministry of Health distributed a potential vaccine to medical practitioners. Written in late 1919, this document details the composition of the vaccine and how to administer it, specifying the doses for different age groups and the necessity of sanitizing syringes. The names and addresses of those inoculated were to be recorded, reflecting the state’s increasingly systematic approach to public health.
The period covered by this collection witnessed the rise of Britain’s naval supremacy and the accruement of its vast colonial empire. Consequently, many of the sources chart the impact of pandemics on Britain’s maritime economy, such as schematics outlining air ventilation technology for ships, designed to guard crews against infectious diseases. Sources likewise evidence the strict quarantine measures enforced at British ports to prevent potential pandemics. Interestingly, quarantines to guard against plague, commonly thought of as a medieval phenomenon, were active until the early 1700s.
A key strength of this collection is that it facilitates comparative analysis, enabling researchers to identify key parallels between previous pandemics and the recent spread of COVID-19. For example, this collection reveals efforts to provide relief for the poor during outbreaks of disease, as well as attempts by the state to impose quarantines and to encourage people to receive the smallpox vaccine. You will also come across documents resembling the “COVID pass”, such as the certificates of health introduced by the government of King Charles II in 1666, and debates as to whether it was safe to reopen public places, such as schools and theatres.
Pandemics can generate new forms of criminality. In this collection you will come across the sale of counterfeit smallpox vaccines and trials of individuals who caused deaths by administering vaccines incompetently. People were likewise prosecuted for selling useless or harmful plague remedies and for forging messages during quarantines. There are even accounts of people sending contagious plasters and scabs to individuals they disliked.
Development of the smallpox vaccine and the introduction of state vaccination programs ultimately served to eradicate the disease. This process nevertheless precipitated challenges. This collection evidences how individuals who resisted vaccination faced social stigma and legal repercussions. Many were subjected to fines, faced discrimination from employers, had their belongings auctioned by the state, or received bills of costs for rejecting vaccination for their children.
This collection is rich in medical reports, mortality statistics, and legal records. Yet it also offers fascinating glimpses into everyday life during severe outbreaks of disease. There are recipe books detailing homemade remedies for the plague, prayers for the cessation of cholera, and music and children’s rhymes penned to educate or boost morale.
The sheer chronological scope of this collection allows students and researchers to identify and track broad historical themes. Perhaps one of the most intriguing of these is the development of the modern state, ideologically and logistically. Throughout this collection you can observe how pandemics provoked sustained thought and reflection, at all levels of society, on the very idea of the state: on its capabilities, infrastructure, powers, and, crucially, its responsibilities in terms of promoting public safety and the common good.
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![The Hospital of Bethlem [Bedlam] at Moorfields, London: seen from the north, with sheep grazing and people walking in the foreground. Coloured wood engraving by W. H. Prior.](https://d1sxy7l4fhu207.cloudfront.net/uploads/staging/1738/conversions/BOA_RBRH_Card_1630494275-800x600.jpg)
