Local historian and author Margaret Bartley is set to give a talk on the impact the 1918 Influenza Pandemic had in the Town of Keene at the Keene Valley Library.

Bartley has collected individual stories and photos that help convey the impact the public health crisis had on the relatively isolated community. She will detail the devastating flu’s impact on Keene and the surrounding Adirondack region. Bartley estimates 90% of the hamlet’s population was infected. At one point in 1919, there were so many deaths town officials struggled to bury the bodies.

Worldwide, an estimated half a billion people were infected – one-third of the world’s population – during the pandemic called the Spanish Flu.  In the US, the death toll was 675,000.

While most of the Old World and United States were hit hard by the flu in 1918, a rebound effect brought the an epidemic wave to Keene the following year.

This talk is sponsored by the Town of Keene Historical Society and the Adirondack History Museum. This is first in a series of programs planned for 2019 by the Keene Historical Society. The event is free and open to the public and will be held on Monday, January 21st, at 7 pm at the Keene Valley Library on Route 73 in Keene Valley, NY.