War on Rats: the architecture of the bubonic plague in Galveston

Abstract

Galveston, Texas is one of the oldest seaport cities in the Gulf of Mexico west of New Orleans, making it a historically prime location for disease outbreaks. The bubonic plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, likely spread to Galveston via infected rats and fleas on steamboats. Known as the Black Death, the bubonic plague infected 17 Galvestonians from 1920 to 1921. This article examines the “War on Rats,” the public health response to the Galveston bubonic plague outbreak in the 1920s. As part of public health practices at the time, the rat-proofing of buildings provides a glimpse into the intersection of public health and architecture. This exploration of the war on rats in Galveston offers insights into 20th-century examples of cross-disciplinary collaboration to promote human health in urban contexts.

Keywords:

• Architecture
• bubonic plague
• history
• infectious disease
• public health

Disclosure statement/Funding

The author reports no funding or conflicts of interests.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This manuscript was presented in part at the 104th University of Texas Medical Branch Osler Club sponsored by the John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine on March 22, 2022 as well as the 52nd meeting of the American Osler Society on April 11, 2022. I would like to thank Paula Summerly, MSc, PhD, and J. R. Shaw for their help with the research for this project and Michael Malloy, MD, MS, for his thoughtful comments on previous drafts of this manuscript.