The 1918 Influenza Epidemic in Eastern North Carolina

The word “epidemic” has been on everyone’s mind in recent years. Our lives were changed when masks and social distancing became mandatory, stay at home orders were issued across the country, and millions of lives were lost to COVID-19. But this isn’t the first time we’ve faced a global pandemic. Join the New Bern Historical Society on November 9th as Layne Carpenter, Archivist at Laupus Health Sciences Library, Eastern Carolina University, discusses the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.

As the Great War came to an end in the fall of 1918, a lethal disease spread across the globe. By the time of its conclusion in March 1919, more people died from what was known as the Spanish Flu than died in the war itself, including an estimated 13,000 North Carolinians. Our speaker will explore this deadly influenza virus strain and its rampage throughout eastern North Carolina, as well as its impact on society, medical care, and public health. 

Layne Carpenter is the Archivist at Laupus Health Sciences Library, Eastern Carolina University. She completed her undergraduate degree in history at Westminster College and her MA in history with a concentration in public history at UNC Charlotte. Layne has worked with special collections and museums for over ten years and has been with Laupus Library for almost five years. Making history accessible to the public has always been her passion and she loves researching history, no matter the time period.

Cost is $22 for Historical Society members, $26 for nonmembers.