To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1918 influenza pandemic and its ties to World War I, a team of Maryville University faculty and students curated an exhibit in the Morton J. May Foundation Gallery in November.
Germaine Murray, PhD, professor of English, led the team of researchers. The project involved interdisciplinary collaboration between a small group of English, biology, education and design and visual art students and faculty.
“I wanted to study the flu because it’s a story that doesn’t get told in the history books,” Murray said. “The disease also has close connections to World War I, which was the most important event of the 20th century and affected the arts in a profound way.”
Four years ago, Murray and John Baltrushunas, MFA, associate professor of art and director of the May Gallery, curated “World War I Remembered,” an exhibit marking the 100th anniversary of the start of the war. That exhibit honored the men and women who served or volunteered during the war.
Christopher O’Connor, PhD, assistant professor of biology, joined Murray and Baltrushunas on this new collection, which explored the war through the lens of the influenza virus. Seniors Caitlin Allen, an English student; Emily Street, a biology major; and Wyatt Thurman, who is studying education; worked alongside their professors to explore the impact of the influenza pandemic and present their findings as part of the exhibit.
“We encouraged our students to conduct research because it was a way for us to bring the things we discussed in class into the real world,” O’Connor said. The team spent more than a year researching, collecting artifacts and writing descriptions for those pieces, and meeting weekly to discuss their findings, he said.
Visitors to the gallery were greeted by a large 3D model of the 1918 influenza virus, printed by the Big Rep One printer from Maryville’s Design & Visual Art Program. Smaller, handheld 3D models of the virus were also on display so visitors could take them apart and put them back together using color-coded keys.