Is the forgotten 1918 Spanish Flu a hint of how COVID-19 will be remembered?

Inside the University of Alberta's Old Arts Building is a small plaque honouring a victim of the Spanish Flu.

William Muir Edwards — a civil engineering professor, athlete and son of famed feminist Henrietta Muir Edwards — died Nov. 14, 1918, after contracting the flu while caring for victims at a makeshift hospital in Pembina Hall. He had just turned 39.

Over 600 Edmontonians were among the flu's estimated 50 million victims. But outside the history books, the Edwards plaque is one of the only public reminders of the flu's local toll. This raises the question: will we forget the COVID-19 pandemic, too?

It is difficult to imagine such disruptive periods going unremembered. But in many history books, the Spanish Flu is a footnote to the First World War, even though it killed more people than what was then the deadliest conflict in human history.

Suzanna Wagner, a health historian and recent U of A masters of history graduate, said the Edwards plaque was placed in 1919 at an estimated cost of $300. The immediate aftermath of the flu, she said, “was replete with eloquent tributes to those who served others during the height of the crisis.”

After awhile, though, a kind of amnesia set in.

There are many theories about why people forgot the Spanish Flu. One is people were simply exhausted from the war. Another is that victims tended to be poor and marginalized, and care workers were mostly women — groups for whom early-20th-century society rarely erected monuments.

“It could be argued there was less to be gained by remembering the flu for society as a whole,” Wagner said. “There always has to be a motivation to create public history objects and practices. And the flu in many ways was a defeat. This massive, overwhelming thing that medical science was unable to stop.”

COVID-19 has reignited interest in the 1918 flu and the dearth of memorials to its victims. One of the few Canadian cities with such a memorial is Regina. It was erected only recently, ahead of the pandemic's centennial.

Kenton de Jong, a 28-year-old Regina history buff, decided the city needed a flu memorial after reading about unmarked graves in the municipal cemetery containing at least seven Spanish Flu victims. Erected in 2017, the stone memorial reads: “To the victims of the Spanish Influenza: the citizens of Regina will always remember you.” A QR code at its zenith dispels any ambiguity about when it was placed.

When it comes to remembering COVID, Wagner sees reason for optimism. Historians are already collecting remembrances and ephemera. There's also the sheer amount of pop culture generated during the pandemic, including TV shows, literature and pop music.