HIstoryLink: the 1918 flu epidemic in Seattle

HistoryLink: Viral Infection

On October 3, 1918, the worldwide Spanish influenza epidemic officially arrived in Washington with the report of 700 cases and one death at the University of Washington's Naval Training Center. During the next six months, 1,600 lives were lost in Seattle alone. No area of the state was left untouched, and 70 years later Kenneth Knoll recalled its effects in Spokane in great detail. 

Others affected by the flu included singer Linnie Love, who was stricken performing for troops at Camp Lewis; journalist Emmett Watson, who was orphaned shortly after his birth in 1918; and noted author Mary McCarthy, who lost her parents to the influenza and later wrote of the difficulties she faced afterward.