Photos: What did the flu look like 100 years ago

1918-influenza epidemic; The courtyard is held outdoors in San Francisco.

Nurses treat victims of a Spanish flu epidemic outdoors, in the middle of canvas tents, at an outdoor cure, Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1918.

Influenza epidemic, 1918: telephone operator with protective gauze.

1918-Chicago, Illinois- Inspect Chicago street cleaners for the Spanish flu. The officials wear gauze masks.

Demonstration at the Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Post during a Pandemic Influenza, Washington DC, United States, National Photo Company, 1918.

View of a woman from the American Red Cross Motor Corps, two with a patient with influenza on a stretcher, showing walking through a tented camp, Morgan, New Jersey, October 6, 1918.

Rules to reduce the spread of Spanish flu by the US Public Health Service. Cough or sneeze into your mouth with a tissue, avoid crowded places, do not spit, do not share the use of cups and towels. Avoid excessive fatigue Just get sick in bed and tell your doctor. Typographic poster; United States, Washington, DC 1918.

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Two Red Cross nurses with a person on a stretcher during a demonstration at the Red Cross Emergency Ambulance post during the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic, Washington DC , 1918

The Oakland Municipal Auditorium is used as a temporary hospital by volunteer nurses from the American Red Cross who care for the sick during the 1918 flu pandemic, Oakland, California, 1918.

A nurse checking a patient at the Walter Reed Hospital's influenza ward during the influenza pandemic, Washington DC, circa 1918.

Red Cross workers remove packs of masks for US soldiers from a table where other women are busy making them, Boston, Massachusetts, 1918.

The 39th Regiment en route to France marched through the streets of Seattle, Washington, each wearing a mask made by the Seattle chapter of the American Red Cross (Seattle, Washington, 1918).

Elevator operator in New York, NY, wearing a mask to protect herself from the Spanish flu, New York, October 16, 1918.

Two Red Cross nurses with a person on a stretcher during a demonstration at the Red Cross Emergency Ambulance post during the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic, Washington DC , 1918

Spanish Influenza in Army Hospitals – Masks and Cabins Used at US No. 4 General Hospital, Fort Porter, New York, 1918. Patient beds are reversed alternatively so that the breath of one patient is not directed towards the face of another.

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An American soldier is covered with a sheet to prevent the flu from spreading, approx. 1919

The image shows converted warehouses to keep infected people in quarantine. Patients suffer from the 1918 flu pandemic: 50 to 100 million people were killed. Dated 1918

A street sweeper from New York City wears a mask to help curb the spread of the flu epidemic, October 1918. According to a New York Health Board official, it's better to "be ridiculous than dead."

Motorized body of the Red Cross of St. Louis in service during the American flu epidemic. 1918. Women wearing masks holding stretchers at the back of ambulances.

As protection against the flu virus, men gargle salt and water after a day spent working at the War Garden in Camp Dix, New Jersey, in September 1918. It was a preventive measure against epidemic of influenza that had spread to the army camps.

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View of tents and patients in a Brookline emergency hospital to treat influenza cases, Massachusetts, October 1918.

A typist wears a mask while working at her desk during the 1918 flu epidemic.

View of a flu-related health warning, published by the Anti-Tuberculosis League, posted inside a transit vehicle (probably a train), 1918 – 1920 The sign reads, "Keep your bedroom windows open! Prevent influenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis "and refers to the deadly pandemic of" Spanish flu "that swept the world; international mortality statistics estimate that it has resulted in between 20 and 100 million deaths.

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Red Cross volunteers fighting against the Spanish flu epidemic in the United States in 1918

In the United States, the use of a mask by Red Cross personnel helps to reduce the spread of the disease, around 1918.

Seattle police wearing gauze protective masks during the 1918 flu epidemic that cost millions of lives around the world

February 27, 1919: A woman wearing an anti-flu mask during the influenza epidemic that followed the First World War.

March 1, 1919: Two men wearing and advocating the use of anti-flu masks in Paris during the Spanish flu epidemic that followed the First World War.

around 1918: doctors treating a patient with influenza at the US Naval Hospital of New Orleans.

A doctor vaccinates Major Peters of Boston against the Spanish flu virus during the epidemic, c. 1918. (

The women of the War Department walk for 15 minutes to breathe fresh air morning and night to ward off the flu virus during the First World War, c. 1918.

The congregation prayed on the steps of St. Mary's Cathedral, where they gathered to hear Mass and pray during the flu epidemic in San Francisco, California.

An American policeman wearing an "anti-flu mask" to protect himself from the outbreak of the Spanish flu after the First World War

Red Cross volunteers fighting against the Spanish flu epidemic in the United States in 1918.

The picture shows a baseball player wearing a mask during the 1918 flu epidemic.