Published: October 31, 2007 02:41 pm         

Historical Society display connects two devastating 20th century killers and how one Valdosta doctor battled both

In a year when Valdosta-Lowndes County and South Georgia has placed a great deal of focus on its aging World War II veterans through Honor Flight, Lowndes County Historical Society Museum revamped a display honoring the war fought by the parents of the Greatest Generation.

Preparing for its 40th Anniversary Celebration in October, the Historical Society reconsidered many of its displays and exhibits, including the showcase on the region’s contributions in World War I, called by much of the world, the Great War.

In recent years, Americans have heard more about the Great Flu Epidemic from that same period of time in the late 1910s. The flu epidemic killed millions worldwide and hundreds of thousands in the United States.

The Historical Society’s World War I exhibit touches upon both the Great War and the Great Flu Epidemic, and it does so through the reason for updating the exhibit.

Recently, the Historical Society received a World War I uniform complete with blouse, trousers and cap. The uniform belonged to Dr. Frank Bird, a Valdosta physician and operated the Bird Hospital in the first half of the 20th century in Downtown Valdosta, a building that neighbors the Historical Society Museum.

Rozzie Bird, Dr. Bird’s granddaughter, donated the uniform to the Lowndes County Historical Society, said Renate Milner, museum director until just recently taking a job with the Georgia State Archives in Morrow, Ga. A complete World War I uniform is a rare acquisition, Milner said, noting that it is rare to find a pair of the trousers, which ballooned or puffed to the sides at the thigh.

It is amazing the uniform has survived the nearly 90 years since the end of World War I, that it survived the war, that is survived the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. But not only did the uniform and its owner survive, but the story goes that Dr. Bird helped many others survive.

The 1918-19 flu pandemic killed more people worldwide than were killed in World War I. It killed more people than the Black Death of the bubonic plague in the 1300s. It is considered the most devastating epidemic in recorded human history, killing as many as 40 million people.

Amidst these deaths, Frank Bird saved lives. This tale, provided by Tony Smith of Cartersville, who lost a grandmother to the epidemic, is included within the uniform display beside a portrait of Dr. Bird.

As Bird was returning home from the war by ship, many troops got the flu, according to Smith’s account, which was also published in a 2005 edition of the Historical Society newsletter.

“Dr. Bird observed that most of the officers died and most of the enlisted men lived. The enlisted men got no cool fresh air, no cold compresses, and no cold drinks, so that their fever was not artificially reduced.”

Bird used this observation to treat patients upon his return to Valdosta. His Valdosta patients were kept under blankets so as to maintain a high fever.

“Other Valdosta doctors said he was crazy and inhumane, but their patients (who got fresh air and cold compresses) died, while Dr. Bird’s patients lived,” Smith notes. “Then other doctors copied Dr. Bird and said that he was brilliant.”