Posted to KGI Online Library Blog on May 30, 2020 at 1:46 PM by Bill Sowers
https://cdm16884.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16884coll1/id/1711/rec/1Schools, public gatherings, religious services cancelled. People urged to stay at home, wash hands, avoid hand-to-face contact. Health workers overwhelmed by thousands of stricken people. Sound familiar? Well, this was the state of things in 1920 during an influenza pandemic that spread across the world. Read the article and accompanying reports of Kansas newspapers as this deadly disease spread across the state one hundred years ago. All available at the State Library of Kansas' KGI Online Library...
Continue Reading...
Posted to KGI Online Library Blog on December 18, 2020 at 1:22 PM by Donna Casement
1912-Kansas State Board of Health
In 1900, patent medicines were advertised in every local newspaper in the country and the product was mostly unregulated by government. Multi-columned ads shouted promises about the only tonic available to cure the aches and pains of life. Individuals who promoted patent medicines made huge amounts of money in their unfounded promises made to a gullible public.
Continue Reading...
Posted to KGI Online Library Blog on August 27, 2020 at 7:53 AM by Donna Casement
If you enjoyed your soft drinks spiked with coal tar and used strychnine for stomach indigestion, or if you craved that cough syrup laced with heroin and relished your chewing gum powdered in talc, then you were not pleased with the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. The Kansas State Health Board embraced these laws under the leadership of Dr. Samuel Crumbine. Regulations, science and education were integrated by the health board to fight adulterated food products and the spread of contagious diseases. Read the KGI Blog, Part 3 of a series on the Kansas State Board of Health's early years, written by Donna Casement and provided by the State Library of Kansas' KGI Online Library.
Continue Reading...