CHILDS+CASKET+SCRIPT

CHILDS CASKET SCRIPT

Child’s Cast Iron Casket

This cast iron casket was recovered from the Girod Street Cemetary in New Orleans. The cemetery once stood where the New Orleans Centre is now located, and it served Protestants in New Orleans from 1822-1957. The cemetery was established at a time when Yellow Fever was a major health concern for the region’s residents, and led to over 300,000 deaths in the Lower Mississippi Valley during the 1800s.

Yellow fever is a viral infection spread by the bite of the female mosquito. American and Cuban observers had long argued that mosquitos were the source of spreading the virus, but it was not until 1901 when U.S. Army doctor Walter Reed comfirmed the findings for the U.S. military. The first reported cases appeared in Louisiana around 1817 (the first year reliable statistics are available)*and the disease remained a threat until 1905. More people died of Yellow Fever in New Orleans than any other city in the U.S., and New Orleans was also the last American city to have a major outbreak in 1905. The worst outbreak occurred in 1853, when up to 9,000 of the city’s residents died, which was almost ten percent of the population. Most victims were immigrants who lived in crowded unsanitary conditions, allowing the easy spread of the disease in their communities.

Some of the symptoms for yellow fever are coma, heart dysfunction, headache, fever, vomiting, red eyes, face, or tongue, jaundice, and a few others