Artifact of the Month: September 2020

Unprecedented Times

With a 40% increase in research requests this year, Museum staff has delved into the archives more than ever. One area of interest has been in finding commonalities in our present COVID-19 pandemic with earlier epidemics. While learning more about the 1918 flu epidemic, an article published in October of 1918 in the Daily Progressive Miner caught our eye. Arthur Moa had written home to his adopted godparents, Forest and Harriet Hunt. Moa was one of several drafted men from Ketchikan that ended up in Camp Dodge, near Des Moines, Iowa as part of Company C's 14th Infantry Division. He writes, "none of us Alaskans like it here as it is so hot and dusty, but I guess we will have to get used to that. There are so many cases of Spanish Influenza in camp and several deaths have occurred from it. The camp is in quarantine now."

Moa is one of the many men in this photo of the 14th Infantry Division, a 1996 donation that was accessioned with only a few names to the record. Connecting Moa, the photo and the article provides us with insight into the life of these Ketchikan men as they headed off to war. In the end, the 14th was spared from the front lines as World War I came to an end that November. The epidemic came to an end a year and a half later. Moa next appears in our archives in a 1926 wedding announcement, having luckily skirted both war and a pandemic.

Research requests provide us with more opportunities to connect our community with its past and discover a valuable context for understanding our own experiences.

Ketchikan Museums, KM 96.2.55.42