"Preparing for the Pandemic: City Boards of Health and the Arrival of Cholera in Montreal, New York, and Philadelphia"

Time: 2:00 p.m.

Place: 640 Waterworks Drive, Philadelphia

Information: Drew Brown, 215-685-6098

Dr. John B. Osborne, Professor Emeritus of History at Millersville University, will lecture on his finding that cholera--a deadly, water-borne bacterium--hit Philadelphia more gently than other cities in the 1830s, probably because of the relative purity of the Schuylkill River and the unrivaled efficiency of the City's water system. His paper on "Preparing for the Pandemic" was published in the Urban History Review's issue on "Public Health in the City" in Spring 2008.