Microcosm of a global disaster

By Margaret Mary Sheehan

In the pages of the ‘Influenza Temporary Hospital Staff Register’, held by the  University of Melbourne Archives, is evidence of the Spanish influenza pandemic that wrought havoc across the world between 1918 and 1920. Bound in red leather and unprepossessing in appearance, this journal was created by the Victorian Branch of the Australian Red Cross Society and contains lists of volunteers who offered their services during the first wave of the virus in Melbourne that started in January 1919. Two more waves or recrudescence swept across Victoria in the following eight months with a devastating effect on the State’s population. More than 3,500 people died in Victoria, a terrible loss after the horrifying war losses.

Figure 1.

The journal’s function was administrative and was organised geographically by the volunteers’ hospital location. Thirty-four emergency hospitals (the Register describes them as ‘temporary hospitals’) were created throughout the metropolitan area to manage the critically ill who overwhelmed the health care system during the pandemic. Schools delayed opening after the summer break, and many were converted into emergency hospitals. Also converted were drill halls, kindergartens, army base hospitals, as well as the (Royal) Exhibition Building. Yet buildings were comparatively more easily found than experienced staff as many nurses had yet to return from the war, resulting in a dire shortage of qualified carers. Calls for volunteers went out, and in late January a Red Cross worker began diligently listing names in the ‘Influenza Temporary Hospital Staff’ Register.

The Register recorded those who volunteered over a period of 10 weeks, the first entry being on 25 January 1919 and the final on 11 April 1919, the greatest number offering help in February during the first onslaught of the disease.[1] But what was the purpose of the Register? Was a letter of notification sent to the emergency facility where the volunteer was posted? Were volunteers tracked? Was there more than one Register? Whilst these are seemingly unanswerable questions, we can know that this Register was created by one individual, for the handwriting remains constant. This nameless person had the task of receiving offers of help; listing the date of registering; their level of experience, if relevant; hospital placement; and ultimately preserving this record of volunteers.

More than 670 community members were registered: all were women, mainly offering to nurse and care for the ill, although some volunteered to cook, work in laundries, or act as ward-maids. Little more than 80 were registered trained nurses, accredited by the professional body the Victorian Trained Nurses Association, and not quite a third were members of the Voluntary Aid Detachment VADs. Generally these VADs were young upper or middle class women of ‘independent means’ who would have presented with first aid training and home nursing certificates awarded by St John’s Ambulance.[2] Another smaller percentage (about 50) were described as ‘partly trained’. The majority (337) had no formal training and were simply keen to help in a time of community crisis.

The stress or difficulties of volunteering are also reflected in the Register in a perfunctory manner, for the word ‘left’ is neatly recorded against some names, occasionally in red ink. Many volunteers were young girls (about 550 were described as ‘Miss’) who had never seen anyone critically ill, let alone watched them die, and were required to care for many delirious and distressing cases. Perhaps it is unsurprising that more than 70 left without explanation. The Register also records those who did not survive, such as Annie Prince who died on 1st March 1919, after caring for patients in the Exhibition Building’s emergency hospital.[3] Another, Daisy Carr, died on 14 April, also after caring for influenza patients in the Exhibition Building.[4]

The Red Cross ‘Influenza Temporary Hospital Staff’ Register offers an important glimpse into the human cost of an event that remains Australia’s worst natural disaster in terms of lives lost. It also provides a microcosm of the Melbourne community’s response, and generosity of its female members.

Open volume showing pages of handwritten entries.
Figure 2.

Illustrations

  1. Hospital beds in the Great Hall during the Spanish influenza pandemic, 1919. MM 103429, Museums Victoria Collections
  2. Influenza Temporary Hospital Staff Register, UMA 2016.0074.00002

 

[1] Australian Red Cross Society, Victorian Division, ‘Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) and Field Force Personnel Records’,  Influenza Temporary Hospital Staff Register, UMA 2016.0074, pages 13 & 54

[2] Melanie Oppenheimer. 2014. The Power of Humanity : 100 Years of Australian Red Cross 1914-2014. Harper Collins Australia., page 31

[3] Influenza Temporary Hospital Staff Register, ibid., page 32; Weekly Times, 15 March 1919, page 38

[4] Ibid., page 1; Geelong Advertiser, 19 April 1919, page 7


Travels with a land seer

This week’s post has been inspired by fabulous travel destinations. Great cities, architecture and natural wonders feel all that more alluring as we indulge in escapism from our various states of pandemic lockdown.  Hence the ‘Travel guide to COVID-19 pocket exhibition’ has been put together for some isolation enjoyment. Roaming through pictures allows freedom of travel across both time and continents.

Travel guide to covid-19 pocket exhibition

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Apocryphal pictures

Navigating ancient texts and images can be a mystifying experience, encountering ‘hidden’ or secret stories in the Bible, known as the Apocrypha, are a provocative example. These tantalising, albeit esoteric stories actually occur throughout Western art, indicating their appeal to artists and audiences. Therefore it is worth taking a look at a few examples in brief detail to try and disambiguate their meaning.

The Apocrypha are writings, often classified as a group of fourteen books appendices in the Old Testament. In the Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament) and the Vulgate (Latin version of the Scriptures) they are not considered canonical, and are therefore unauthorised because their authorship is contested. They are omitted altogether from the Protestant Bible. Several of the Apocrypha discuss strong female protagonists and also erotic themes:

Book of Judith

Oliviero Gatti after Pordenone, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, (1606), engraving.
Oliviero Gatti after Pordenone, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, (1606), engraving.

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A view from the vegetables

Vegetable seeds and seedlings are some of the many items being panic purchased by nervous communities during the pandemic. This is partly because cultivating vegetables offers a source of food should supermarkets sell out, but perhaps more importantly, these living and thriving organisms also nourish the soul. Carl Wilhelm Kolbe (1759-1835) is a German Romantic printmaker who pondered and celebrated the wonders of vegetables. Just like the Romantics who examined nature to experience emotions and reveal divine purposes, now is again the time to lie beneath the cabbages and contemplate the leaves.

Carl Wilhelm Kolbe, The cow in the reeds, c.1800, etching.
Carl Wilhelm Kolbe, The cow in the reeds, c.1800, etching.

Kolbe’s ‘The cow in the reeds’ is one of the 28 etchings he created to depict giant vegetation growing in natural surroundings and which he called ‘Kräuterblätter’ (vegetable sheets). He took his inspiration from the woods of his home town of Dessau, 17th century Dutch landscapes and the poetry of Salomon Gessner. He created a new perspective by applying almost botanical accuracy to his renderings of vegetation, seen from a worm’s eye view, so that the viewer feels the magic of being amongst colossal plants. In ‘The cow in the reeds’ the animal is of secondary interest to the reeds arching overhead, meadow plants, and in the foreground giant, luscious rhubarb.


Between Old and New: Reflections of a Gallery Attendant at Old Quad

Guest post by Gallery Attendant, Ada Coxall, reflecting on her work at Old Quad where she bridges the gap between art and audiences.

There always seems to be something quite poetic about being alone in Old Quad at the beginning and close of the day, before the doors open and visitors filter in. Standing in the stillness of the early morning or late afternoon never ceases to strike a chord with me, as I reflect on the building’s past guises and the many who have walked its halls.

Taking in these moments before I begin my duties as Gallery Attendant helps to centre me, helps me to engage with this ‘new-old’ space – and the objects it holds. I have the history and the story of the place in my mind as I go through the motions, checking the lights are all on and everything is in order. One of my opening duties is to examine the works on display, looking for any damages or issues. Moving into the North Annex of Old Quad, I find that a brief once-over never applies to Tom Nicholson’s work, Towards a Glass Monument, as my attention is naturally grabbed by the beauty of the piece. I find that the artwork changes day by day, and it is hard to not stand and admire the many ways it reacts to the light. Nicholson brings my early morning thoughts on the history of the building alive in this piece, offering multiple angles through which to view its significance. The arched neo-gothic lancets, which frame the stained glass, hark back to the original Old Quad windows, thereby using the structure of the old to hold something new. My interactions with visitors as they come across this piece is always a highlight, as we share our thoughts and feelings about the work.

Tom Nicholson, Towards a glass monument 2017-19 (installation photograph).
Tom Nicholson, Towards a glass monument 2017-19 (installation photograph).  Stained glass lead and steel frame in 2 screens, each containing 20 lancets. Realised through Monash Art Projects, Melbourne; Geoffrey Wallace Stained Glass, Melbourne; and courtesy of Milani Gallery, Brisbane. Photograph: Christian Capurro. © Tom Nicholson

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