A Closer Look at the Victims of Washington, DC’s 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic

Walter Reed Army Hospital flu ward circa 1919 (Shorpy)

I was researching a couple of stories and I came across an article that was so sad that I had to share it with you. It’s from the Washington Times on October 19th, 1918.

The world was in the middle of the greatest pandemic in the history of the planet. Between 50 and 100 million people fell victim to the deadly virus. The citizens of Washington shared in this epic tragedy and the innocent victims were often children.

If they didn’t catch the flu themselves, certainly someone in their family would. Sadly, a common case was the parents getting the flu and dying, leaving the child without one or both parents.

Demonstration at the Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station in Washington, D.C., during the influenza pandemic of 1918.
Demonstration at the Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station in Washington during the influenza pandemic of 1918

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The Anonymous Story of Robert Muir, the Cairo Hotel Manager from the 1910s

Robert H. Muir's World War I Draft Registration Card (Ancestry.com)

There were a couple of requests a short while back to do a post on The Cairo, the most famous residential building in the city. You can Google it or check it out on Wikipedia, so no need to do the building’s history. I want to dig up the more anonymous stories of people associated with the building.

So, here’s one that I came across about a guy named Robert Muir. He was the Cairo Hotel’s manager back in the 1910s, about a little over 15 years into its existence.

The Cairo advertisement (1915)
The Cairo advertisement (1915)

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