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• 1 2021-05-03T16:31:35+00:00 History Always Repeats Itself 6 Object 3 Submission plain 2021-05-13T04:15:59+00:00

  By Emma Perry

  Above are photographs/scans of Trinity College Tripod articles and pictures of the College and its inhabitants during the time of the Influenza Pandemic of 1918. While exploring the extents of the Watkinson Library online, I was especially drawn to the things that focus on Trinity College itself. I focused on these exhibits or objects because it felt right as the library is so carefully curated by people here at Trinity, and because during a normal year I could enter it and be surrounded by pieces of history. Due to how tied the Watkinson is to Trinity, I wanted to choose an object/exhibit to explore that specifically mentioned or expanded on a time in our College’s past. While searching, I came across a whole exhibit-cited below- dedicated to the Pandemic of 1918. For a moment I considered exiting the page completely, because in many ways I think we have all seen enough content dedicated to the current global pandemic.
  
  However, before exiting the page, I saw that they had Tripod Excerpts. As much as I didn’t want to think about ANOTHER pandemic, I was too intrigued by the photos of the 20th century newspaper articles.
  
  After scrolling through each section of the exhibit, I saw not only photos and preserved Tripod articles, I also saw “A Concise History of Trinity College and the 1918 Influenza” By Brendan W. Clark ’21, History Department. In this short explanation of how different areas of the school reacted to the pandemic, Clark described an eerily similar situation for the students. Drinking fountains that were no longer available, a ban on leaving campus, and even a reported increase in library attendance by students who wanted a place to go during quarantine.
  
  All this information actually ended up comforting me a little bit, as the similarities between then and now show how it's possible to rebuild and move on after such a horrific and life altering situation such as a pandemic. It was morbidly amusing to read reports about frustrated and stir crazy students feeling many of the same emotions as me and my fellow peers are feeling now. While looking into all this, I had the idea to print pictures of the Tripod Articles and the photos and make a collage. I had many ideas as to what to make and whether or not to make it representational, including a tree, or just a filling of the pages with cut outs, but I decided not to plan too much. I thought maybe in the spirit of how unpredictable life can be, I would instead just make something for once without thinking too hard about planning it out. My end result is shown below. It was cathartic for me to make. I made it in my sketch book because of the quality of the paper but also because I like presenting it as a book that you have to open because it signifies the research that led to the inspiration.
  
  

  Citations

  Obituaries in the Tripod and the Bulletin · Trinity College and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 · Watkinson Library - Virtual Museum. https://watkinsonlibrary.omeka.net/exhibits/show/trinity-college-and-the-influe/obituaries-in-the-tripod-and-t. Accessed 23 Apr. 2021.