Beginning in 1918 and continuing into 1919, the global influenza epidemic raged. It was known at the time as the “Spanish Flu,” due to the widespread but erroneous belief that the disease had originated in and spread from Spain. Worldwide, 21,600,000 died. In the United States alone, .5% of the population died of the disease (Arcari and Birden). Unlike previous strains of influenza, this one affected adults between the ages of 20-40 more than infants or the elderly (Bristow 4). Occurring against the backdrop of the first World War and the federal government’s increased role in social and daily life, the pandemic occurred as the American understanding of public health and its institutions were growing and changing (Bristow 35). The American Red Cross, for example, was a major player in disaster relief efforts throughout the pandemic (Bristow 54).

In 1915, Booker T. Washington, the so-called “Wizard of Tuskegee” gave his last public talk while on tour in Connecticut. This was not Washington’s first time in Connecticut. Over the course of his career, from New Haven to Norwich, Washington had tread many roads throughout the North, and this state in particular. His pursuit, as always, was to secure funding for the Tuskegee Institute, of which he was president; he also spoke more broadly for the cause of black education in the South.

The precise number of those who emigrated from the Kingdom of Hungary, itself a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, has always been difficult to calculate. The Empire did not collect these statistics and the U.S. authorities were bewildered by the multi-ethnic character of the Hungarian migration. They often assigned place of national origin to the newcomers in a haphazard way. Magyars and Slovaks made up the largest percentage of the immigrants from Hungary, but Croats, Slovenes, Germans, and Ruthenians were among the number. It is estimated that approximately one and a half million people from Hungary entered the United States between 1861 and 1913, with the vast majority coming after 1899. At least a third of these remigrated to Hungary, returning when there was an economic downturn in the U.S., or when they had saved enough money to try to make a go of it back in Europe.

On May 16, 1910, on the occasion of the unveiling of statues of Pulaski and Kosciuszko in Washington, D.C. by President Taft, the Norwich Bulletin reprinted an article from the Hartford Times entitled “Poles in Connecticut.” According to this piece, 804 children of Polish immigrants were born in Connecticut in 1908. ... They settled in large numbers in Willimantic and Bridgeport, as well. Connecticut-bound immigrants were part of the migration of an estimated 1.5 million ethnic Poles that arrived in the United States between 1899 and 1913 with the hope of finding jobs or starting farms. The 1910 Census documented 55,356 Connecticut residents of Polish stock. Of those, 35,472 were foreign-born and 19,874 born of Polish parents. This was likely an undercount. As Poland was not an independent nation at this time, ethnically Polish immigrants came from Galicia, which was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire; Congress Poland, which was under Russia’s thumb; and Silesia, or, Prussian-Poland. It is likely that many Polish immigrants were categorized as Russian, Hungarian, German, or as another nationality.

In the late 19th century, Connecticut was highly regarded as a pioneering state for its expansive network of parks, playgrounds, and other spaces for recreation. Indeed, at one time, Bridgeport was known as “Park City” and Hartford was lauded as a striking example of a planned urban landscape. Though many in Connecticut had an especially keen interest in shaping the built environment and “natural” spaces in the state to better suit the peoples’ need for recreation, these efforts were also part of a larger national and international trend. In the late 19th century, urban reformers took to the streets, bringing children out of dangerous areas to make way for trolleys and eventually, cars. Through the development of playgrounds, ball fields, and parks, children’s play became a far more serious—and regulated—matter in the Progressive era. This was due, in part, to the rapid rise in immigration, to the continued boom in industrial work, and changing notions of who should be outside of the labor force. Fearing that children were working too much and/or not getting safe outlets for play, reformers expressed a heightened interest in channeling youth into structured areas and clubs. Particularly in cities, such as Bridgeport, maintaining a sense of innocence and time for play became imperative for city planners.

“For African Americans,” urban historian Steven J. Diner wrote, “the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century seemed in many respects the worst of times” (p. 125). Between the late 1890’s and the early 1920’s, in response to what was perceived as the excess of the Gilded Age “robber barons,” a powerful wave of social reform shook the nation. Reformers of the Progressive Era, as it has become known, fought to ameliorate the conditions of workers, bust up the trusts and monopolies, institute a graduated income tax, and expand the right to vote to women. However, these mainstream reform movements did not, in general, take on the question of civil rights for African Americans.

According to the political sociologist Robin Archer, “Labor-based political parties have been an important electoral force in every advanced capitalist country. Every one, that is, but the United States” (p. 1). Historians have been debating the reason for American exceptionalism on this score for decades. Perhaps part of the answer will be found in the history of the American Labor Party movement of 1918-1921, a movement that machinists from Bridgeport, Connecticut, led. They launched the first state chapter in the country in 1918. Where did this initiative come from?

Following the Revolutionary War, the prevalence of drinking in the United States rose to unprecedented highs. In Connecticut, unemployment was up due to excessively farmed land, the population was dwindling as laborers left the state to find work elsewhere, and out-of-wedlock births were at an all-time high. Alcohol was part of religious services, recreation, and medicine, and among men, was typically consumed throughout the day. At the so-called height of American drinking, in 1830, the average American adult (those 15 years of age and older) was drinking 7.3 gallons of 80 proof liquor per year.

The history of schools and institutions for people with disabilities reflects prevailing societal attitudes about disabilities. In colonial America, people with disabilities were considered second-class citizens, and it was commonly believed that mental and physical disabilities had theological or supernatural causes. People with disabilities and their families experienced isolation, exploitation, and sometimes death through direct means—violence against people with disabilities—or indirect means—not being able to fully support themselves without community help.

The mental health movement has been evolving since its beginning in the early 20th century. There was activism before the 1900s, most notably done by Dorothea Dix, who fought for state-funded mental health hospitals, but overall, people who were deemed to have mental illnesses were forced into prisons, almshouses, or looked after, often poorly, by their families.

The American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief (ACASR) was formed in 1915 at the behest of American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau in response to the deportations, massacres, and atrocities committed against Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks across Anatolia during World War I. While for centuries the Ottoman Empire fostered a multicultural and religiously diverse domain, the advent of the Young Turk government and the pressure of European nationalism would lead to an assertive Ottoman response to ethnic and religious minorities. In conjunction with Ambassador Morgenthau, philanthropic businessman Cleveland H. Dodge and Protestant missionary James L. Barton jointly created ACASR to provide emergency humanitarian aid to suffering minority populations in the Ottoman Empire. The organization was chartered by Congress in 1919 and renamed the Near East Relief (the group briefly operated under “The American Committee for Near East Relief” from 1918-1919). The Committee successfully mobilized the American public toward unprecedented grassroots support of humanitarian efforts in the Near East and embarked on an ambitious nationwide campaign from 1915 to 1930.

During the height of the Great War in Europe, the Connecticut press was flush with headlines promoting and recording countless examples of war work. As Washington began sending troops abroad, various media outlets, social clubs and medical organizations, as well as the State of Connecticut, called upon women at home to rise to the occasion and mobilize. Women contributed to the war effort in the areas of food conservation, fundraising, registering women for work in the field and factory, and public health and hygiene. Some organizations even appealed to the wanderlust of American women, and sent them abroad working as ambulance drivers and nurses for the Red Cross. Young women jumped at the opportunity to “do their part” for the war effort. Prior to the outbreak of war, during the period generally termed by historians as the Progressive Era, Connecticut was abundant with women’s organizations and civic-minded movements. The federal and state governments appealed to these various civic groups for their help in defense efforts and the response of women has been cited as crucial to the acceptance of woman suffrage in the post-war period.

The struggle over the definition of the right to free speech was a central feature of the World War I era home front, and events in Connecticut were at the center of a national debate that continued throughout the postwar decades. Connecticut was a center of production for arms and munitions, much of it created by a combative immigrant work force whose militancy was feared and whose loyalty was suspect. Pacifists and socialists were active in the state, respectively opposing conscription and trying to use the wartime economic boom to strike for work rules and wages. At the same time, the Yankee elite and political leadership of Connecticut was recognized nationally for their pioneering and vigorous efforts to organize civilian political and material support for the war effort, and, of course, assure uninterrupted production.

The United States mobilized quickly after President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany on April 2, 1917. Troops travelled to the front with the help of massive mobilization efforts to provide weapons, food, and books. The Library War Service, formed by the Library of Congress and the American Library Association (ALA), created a national system to collect and distribute books to troops at home and abroad during and after the war. Between 1917 and 1920, the Library War Service distributed approximately 7-10 million books and magazines. The Service built 36 camp libraries to incorporate reading into daily life, and provided library collections to over 500 locations, including military hospitals.

Though entering the dangerous waters around the British Isles, passengers onboard the luxury liner RMS Lusitania took comfort in the fact that were onboard a unarmed passenger vessel. Sadly, the reality of the European war came in the form of a German torpedo that sank the Lusitania on May 7, 1915. Close to 1,200 people died, including 128 Americans. The Lusitania’s construction and operation was subsidized by the British government and while she was a passenger vessel, she also carried war supplies across the Atlantic. In February 1915, the German government had declared the seas around the British Isles a war zone and warned commercial and neutral ships that they entered at their peril because of this transport. Britain promised the Lusitania that it would be protected by destroyers but did not actually provide escorts. Because she wanted the U.S. to enter the war on her side, Britain used the disaster to step up her appeal for U.S. help in the public media. Thus, the sinking deepened a broad debate on the meaning of U.S neutrality. While America did not enter the war until two years later, the sinking of the Lusitania was one step down the road toward United States’ entry into the conflict.

This topic guide serves as an introduction to the history of the Black press in South Carolina. In South Carolina, the Black Press was founded during the end of slavery in the South and the beginning of Reconstruction. Since its establishment, the Black press in South Carolina has served many purposes. There are over 150 historical African American newspapers established within South Carolina, but unfortunately, many of these titles were not preserved by educational, research, and cultural institutions.

In 1874, John H. Vincent began holding Bible assemblies at a campsite on the shores of Lake Chautauqua, New York. These Bible lessons would transform into philosophical and educational lectures and performances with singers, dancers, and actors. With the introduction of Keith Vawter into the society, the Chautauqua Society began to become more organized. By the 1930s, interest in the slower forms of organized socializing was dwindling due to the modern daily life introduced by televisions, movies, and automobiles.

The introduction of rice into South Carolina was a tale of mystery with two main origin stories. Rice production was a labor-intensive process that used two main methods: inland or tidal. The rice production process, involving threshing and winnowing, was equally demanding. Despite rice's initial success in South Carolina, it faced various challenges. Factors like competition, war, and social changes posed significant hurdles, leading to a decline in rice production in the state over time.

Dr. Matilda Arabella Evans (1872-1935) was a trailblazing African American physician and the first African American woman to practice medicine in South Carolina. She founded the first African American hospital in Columbia, SC, which also served as a training center for nurses. Additionally, she volunteered as a medic in WWI and created the Evans Clinic Association. Her contributions left a lasting legacy, fostering generations of healthcare providers and community leaders in South Carolina.

Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779-1851) was a key American diplomat and politician. He served as the first U.S. Minister to Mexico and the 15th Secretary of War. He played roles in the nullification crisis and the Monroe Doctrine and signed the first U.S.-Mexico treaty. Poinsett co-founded the Smithsonian Institution and popularized the Poinsettia plant in the U.S.

The Women's Suffrage Movement was an era in our history when activists and supporters of voting rights advocated and protested through marches, lobbying, and strikes to guarantee the right to vote for women. This guide focuses on the different timelines of the suffrage movements in the United States, specifically South Carolina. It also highlights the difference between the suffrage movements for white women and women of color, who did not gain the right to vote until the second half of the 20th century.

The Nullification Crisis in South Carolina stemmed from high tariffs placed in 1828 and later 1832, which affected the South's economy. These tariffs were a perceived governmental overreach and were deemed unconstitutional, causing the state to pass the Order of Nullification in 1832. President Jackson responded with the Nullification Proclamation in 1832 and a forceful tariff enforcement law in 1833. Henry Clay, supported by Vice President Calhoun, proposed a compromise tariff in 1833, which led to South Carolina retracting the Order of Nullification and the federal government repealing the enforcement law.