Epidemics – The UncommonWealth

Education & Programming Manuscripts & Special Collections Newspapers

Chronic Pains: Virginia’s History of Painkiller Legislation

A public argument breaks out between several men on the topic of opiates. One, a physician, calls for greater restrictions on prescriptions to curb their…

Library of VirginiaSeptember 24, 2021

“Manifest Danger” : Smallpox Epidemics Hit 19th-Century Chesterfield

Given the current coronavirus health crisis, processing a small collection of Chesterfield County smallpox epidemic records from the 19th century seemed to be a timely…

Tracy HarterApril 22, 2020

A Different Kind of Local Record

Smallpox is an infectious disease caused by two variants of a virus—variola major and variola minor. Since smallpox was certified as eradicated by the World…

Callie FreedJuly 11, 2014