RARE 1872 Cartoon: PRINCE OF WALES Typhoid Fever KING EDWARD VII Queen Elizabeth

Description: Source: PUNCH Magazine, March 2, 1872. Illustrated by Sir John Tenniel. DOUBLE-PAGE size 10 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches, including margins. Condition: excellent -- still bright paper, no handling wear, two folds as issued, with the center fold previously bound in by tab, not sewn or stapled, therefore there are no holes; backside is blank. Comes with an accompanying page with a long poem entitled "Thanksgiving" "THANKSGIVING" February 27, 1872 [Showing Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria, Britannia and others, in St. Paul's Cathedral]BACKGROUND:--The Thanksgiving Service for the recovery of the Prince of Wales, held in St. Paul's Cathedral, February 27, 1872. Religious service in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, to give thanks for the recovery from typhoid fever of Prince Albert Edward (1841-1910), the future King Edward VII. The same disease was believed to have killed his father, Prince Albert.--In 19th-century Britain, when Queen Victoria’s son and heir, Prince Albert Edward, contracted typhoid fever, one of the deadliest infectious diseases of the period. After decades of ignoring or discounting one of the greatest health calamities of their age, a royal illness spurred British leaders, followed by the British public, to reframe the narrative around typhoid, characterizing it as a serious, preventable disease—and creating the first modern public health infrastructure, a system that still influences public health efforts today.Victorians always feared the next big outbreak of pandemic cholera, which arrived every few years and killed thousands during short bursts. Typhoid killed up to 20,000 and sickened and debilitated up to 150,000 people each year.The Prince of Wales caught the illness in the fall of 1871. All of Britain was absorbed with daily updates on the future king’s condition. When the prince began to recover in early 1872, there was massive jubilation, including a stunning public celebration in London in February marked by a royal procession from Buckingham Palace to St. Paul’s Cathedral.The events of late 1871 and early 1872 changed the public narrative around typhoid fever. If the future king of England could get typhoid, so could anyone. The royal sickness that almost killed the Prince of Wales proved to be a turning point for Britain, which was at a political crossroads at the time.On February 6th 1872, at the Opening of Parliament, a formal event that marks the first day of a new session, Queen Victoria returned to the public spotlight to give an energizing speech, where she thanked the entire nation for praying for her son “during the period of anxiety and trial” while sick with typhoid. The address restored the public’s faith in the monarchy. “Never before,” noted an editorial in the leading medical journal of the time, The Lancet, “has the bearing of all classes exhibited the strength of that common band of sorrowful sympathy which we are all bound together as a nation.”That coming together was surprising because, up until Bertie’s prominent and public case of typhoid, most Victorians believed that the disease was the exclusive province of the urban-industrial poor— “the great unwashed”, to borrow the language of novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Indeed, that metaphor of filth, fevers, and fever dens in urban spaces was so ubiquitous that it had become a kind of literary trope in contemporary novels, like Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, and drawings, such as those by cartoonist John Leech in the satirical magazine Punch. Because of how the deadly epidemic disease had previously been framed—as the repose of the poor—any effective nationwide response to typhoid had been obstructed. The wealthy simply blamed the poor and went about their business.The events of late 1871 and early 1872 changed the public narrative around typhoid fever. If the future king of England could get typhoid, so could anyone. Increasingly, well-placed Britons began to consider the epidemic “a national disgrace,” as one prominent doctor, Alfred Haviland, put it. Queen Victoria herself publicly declared that typhoid needed a national solution. Parliament responded swiftly, passing the first comprehensive sanitary legislation, the Public Health Act of 1872, followed by subsequent improvements in another act of 1875. Together, these acts compelled local authorities to provide municipal sanitation systems and hire permanent Medical Officers of Health, local public health officials to conduct disease surveillance and outbreak investigation. The acts also established a national disease surveillance system, centralized at the Medical Department of the Local Government Board, whose team of inspectors were charged with keeping track of and investigating infectious disease outbreaks throughout the country. The United Kingdom had created the nucleus of the first modern public health system in the world and was the first to systematize the practices of state-sponsored epidemiology and allow it to thrive as the chief science of public health. In the period from 1872 to 1900, no other infectious disease was studied more closely than typhoid fever. When the central Medical Department was notified of a local outbreak, it would send an inspection epidemiologist, who interviewed local patients and doctors and performed case-tracing to ferret out the routes of disease communication. These early epidemiologists analyzed sickness and death rates in local communities where an outbreak was occurring, creating maps, diagrams, charts, and photographs in order to see, trace, and understand the spread of an epidemic disease. There were hundreds of local outbreaks to study, with each presenting another illuminating angle on how contaminated surface wells, leaking privy pipes, breakdowns in public water systems, and contaminated milk supplies contributed to widespread community outbreaks."Over 3,000 Punch cartoons listed for sale, combine orders and save shipping charges. Questions are always welcome. WHO IS THE ARTIST:Sir John Tenniel (1820 –1914) was an English illustrator, graphic humorist and political cartoonist prominent in the second half of the 19th century. Tenniel is remembered mainly as the principal political cartoonist for Punch magazine for over 50 years and for his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871).WHAT IS PUNCH? Punch, a magazine of humor and satire, ran from 1841-2002. A very British institution renowned internationally for its wit and irreverence, it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration. Punch was the world's most celebrated magazine of wit and satire. From its early years as a campaigner for social justice to its transformation into national icon, Punch played a central role in the formation of British identity -- and how the rest of the world saw the British nation. In its formative years Punch combined humors, illustration and political debate with a fresh and radical audacity. During its heyday in the late 1800s, it reflected the conservative views of the growing middle-classes and copies of it could be found in the libraries of diplomats, cabinet ministers and even royalty. In the Western world, Punch played a significant role in the development of satire. In the world of illustration, it practically revolutionized it. Over the decades as it charted the interests, concerns and frustrations of the country and today it stands as an invaluable source of cartoon art, satire, but as primary source material for historians.

Price: 34.95 USD

Location: Milton, Vermont

End Time: 2024-09-22T21:51:42.000Z

Shipping Cost: 9.95 USD