Pennsylvania Hospital’s (PAH) Archives hold centuries of medical artifacts, dating back to the hospital’s opening in 1751. Among the collection of antique surgical kits and scrapbooks lies a box documenting the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Patients filled every bed at PAH and surrounding hospitals, while communities attempted to limit the virus’s spread by means of isolation and quarantine in patients’ homes. However, not much is known about the people on the front line — how they felt battling an unknown virus and facing the challenges of working in a pandemic. More than 100 years later, history has repeated itself with the emergence of COVID-19, and Stacey Peeples, curator and lead archivist at PAH, is making sure those personal stories during a historical event will not be forgotten. The solution? A time capsule to fully capture the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic at PAH. Created by Peeples, Jeff O’Neill, AIA, ACHA, CHFM, senior director of Facilities Services, and Betty Craig, DNP, chief nursing officer, the time capsule allows staff to submit meaningful items and messages.
While the 1918 flu pandemic left behind administrative details in the archives, providing official records like board minutes and patient data, the human experience was not encapsulated. Peeples wanted to understand what it was like to walk into the hospital in 1918, hoping to read a reflection of a nurse having to handle patients during this time period. “We wanted to get that personal story as opposed to solely including official correspondence or emails sent out,” said Peeples. “While those give a lot of good statistical information, those personal notes, whether you sat down and wrote 10 words or 10,000 words, those have much more meaning.”
In addition to handwritten and typed letters, staff also submitted items like face masks, the ribbon used for the opening of the Theater of the Living Arts vaccine clinic, and framed photographs of life at the hospital, such as a Christmas tree decorated with masks and other COVID-related items. “The idea of having handwritten letters is especially so valuable and important,” said Peeples. “There’s a personality aspect to it. Did someone have small, neat handwriting, or was this something scrolled across quickly? When someone opens this, they’ll know it was in someone’s hands and they’ll be able to see a moment in time.”
On July 7, a ceremony was held in the Healthcare Heroes Garden to reflect on PAH’s history and its battle against past pandemics, allowing staff to submit final contributions to the time capsule before closing. The time capsule will be locked away in the PAH archives for 100 years, after which it may provide a myriad of experiences, insight, and hope for generations of health care workers to come. “It gives a glimpse of how people were getting through this time period. It’s a cathartic way of moving forward,” said Peeples. “That’s what we’ve done for 270 years. There have been ups and downs, but we’ve come this far already and we know we got this.”