Quarantine Signs

Ink and Pulp, our hero

One of the most dynamic and lifesaving tools in the history of health and disease prevention is the use of the printed sign. You can have buckets of Penicillin, but the only way to prevent the spread of a devastatingly contagious disease such as Small Pox, Scarlet Fever, Whooping Cough, and the dreadful Black Plague, is to quarantine the sick from the healthy.

The 14th century practice of quarantine began as an effort to protect coastal cities from infected ships arriving in Venice. The word quarantine comes from the Italian phrase “quaranta giorni”, meaning 40 days. This is the window in time in which infected ships were required to sit at anchor before landing. The “Spanish Flu” epidemic of 1918-1919 proved mortal for almost 40 million people worldwide. It was Wisconsin that proved to be the only state with lower death rates—the only state whose State Board of Health evacuated and shut down all churches, schools, saloons, and parks. On the doors of such places you would find a government issued sign, warning the public about the highly contagious disease, which was taking the country. Take a look at some of these morbidly interesting quarantine signs, and make a wish on your next shooting star that you never see one in person.