AUBURN - On a recent tour of Fort Hill cemetery, local Red Cross executive director Susan Marteney saw the year �” on a large number of gravestones.
Jason Rearick / The Citizen
Cayuga Museum docent Nick Oristian shows his grandmother, Marion Condes, around the museum during the exhibit's opening reception on Friday.
Cayuga Museum docent Nick Oristian shows his grandmother, Marion Condes, around the museum during the exhibit's opening reception on Friday.
1918 marked the height of the Spanish influenza outbreak, an epidemic that killed more than 500,000 people in the United States alone. Marteney was amazed that a relatively minor infection - one that is easily treatable today - was responsible for so many deaths 90 years ago.
To help educate the community on illnesses past and present, the Cayuga Museum of History and Art, recently unveiled its spring exhibit, “Sick Of It: Infectious Disease and the Public Health System.”
The presentation, located throughout the museum's first floor, includes displays of medical equipment and supplies of the past, artwork, uniforms, videos and much more.
Upstairs, the museum is offering a companion exhibit that celebrates 90 years of the Red Cross in Cayuga County.
“There are things today that I think we take for granted, like fighting germs and how much we rely on penicillin,” Marteney said.
The two exhibits aim to teach people about health issues like influenza and typhoid fever, and how medical personnel - particularly the local Red Cross chapter - has dealt with them, explained Carrie Barrett, the museum's curator.
“‘Sick Of It' is a collaborative project for us here at the museum,” she continued. In addition to her own research, Barrett said that numerous memorabilia was donated by the community, and museum executive director Eileen McHugh studied 19th-century home remedies and “quackery” while creating the exhibit.
“We live in an age where (using) old remedies is no longer a reality, so we'd like to document them before they're lost.”
Included are displays of past medical equipment like elixir bottles and other supplies, documents about fighting typhoid fever and a video about influenza outbreaks in the modern world.
Another unique display concerns home remedies and includes documents displaying several household cures given by anonymous residents of Auburn's Schwartz Towers.
“Put a warm bag of salt on a bad ear,” reads one. The person who supplied the remedy is not listed.
“Eileen (McHugh) decided that since it was the Red Cross's 90th anniversary, we could have an exhibit here that would relate well to the one they already had,” Marteney said.
Two rooms upstairs are packed with all sorts of Red Cross memorabilia, including posters, antique uniforms and other collectibles.
“Auburn and Cayuga County have really supported the Red Cross since 1917, so (the exhibit) is our way of saying thank you,” she said.
Attending the Red Cross exhibit last week was Auburn resident Linda Littlejohn, an active Red Cross volunteer who also donated several items being shown.
One is a quilt with several Red Cross-themed designs and silk-screened photos.
“I made that quilt last year as a Christmas present,” she said.
To help educate the community on illnesses past and present, the Cayuga Museum of History and Art, recently unveiled its spring exhibit, “Sick Of It: Infectious Disease and the Public Health System.”
The presentation, located throughout the museum's first floor, includes displays of medical equipment and supplies of the past, artwork, uniforms, videos and much more.
Upstairs, the museum is offering a companion exhibit that celebrates 90 years of the Red Cross in Cayuga County.
“There are things today that I think we take for granted, like fighting germs and how much we rely on penicillin,” Marteney said.
The two exhibits aim to teach people about health issues like influenza and typhoid fever, and how medical personnel - particularly the local Red Cross chapter - has dealt with them, explained Carrie Barrett, the museum's curator.
“‘Sick Of It' is a collaborative project for us here at the museum,” she continued. In addition to her own research, Barrett said that numerous memorabilia was donated by the community, and museum executive director Eileen McHugh studied 19th-century home remedies and “quackery” while creating the exhibit.
“We live in an age where (using) old remedies is no longer a reality, so we'd like to document them before they're lost.”
Included are displays of past medical equipment like elixir bottles and other supplies, documents about fighting typhoid fever and a video about influenza outbreaks in the modern world.
Another unique display concerns home remedies and includes documents displaying several household cures given by anonymous residents of Auburn's Schwartz Towers.
“Put a warm bag of salt on a bad ear,” reads one. The person who supplied the remedy is not listed.
“Eileen (McHugh) decided that since it was the Red Cross's 90th anniversary, we could have an exhibit here that would relate well to the one they already had,” Marteney said.
Two rooms upstairs are packed with all sorts of Red Cross memorabilia, including posters, antique uniforms and other collectibles.
“Auburn and Cayuga County have really supported the Red Cross since 1917, so (the exhibit) is our way of saying thank you,” she said.
Attending the Red Cross exhibit last week was Auburn resident Linda Littlejohn, an active Red Cross volunteer who also donated several items being shown.
One is a quilt with several Red Cross-themed designs and silk-screened photos.
“I made that quilt last year as a Christmas present,” she said.
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Joan Richards wrote on Mar 21, 2007 11:38 AM: