Exhibit Guide: The Legacy of Public Health in Our Region

"Mrs. Thereasea Elder is a visionary and innovator, a historian and truly a phenomenal woman who loves her family, friends and community." --Mrs. Sarah Mingo Stevenson "When she calls one to do something, one does not ask questions, one just "shows up" to work." --Bertha Allen "She is loved by legions of people across Charlotte because of her love for our people and our history." --Harvey Gantt "She has been a most influential and positive force in my life. I take this journey to God that she has charted for me." --Beverly Cotton Lawston (Deceased 2011) "She has helped generations of women and Charlotte residents understand the function and structure of governments." --Maxine H. Eaves

In 1944, the people of North Carolina faced a polio, or infantile paralysis epidemic which received attention throughout the United States. In The Grit Behind the Miracle, Alice E. Sink tells the extraordinary story of an emergency polio hospital that was built, equipped, and in operation within fifty-four hours in Hickory, North Carolina.

The influenza epidemic of 1918 killed more people in one year than the Great War killed in four, sickening at least one quarter of the world's population. In Fever of War , Carol R. Byerly uncovers the startling impact of the 1918 influenza epidemic on the American army, its medical officers, and their profession, a story which has long been silenced. Through medical officers' memoirs and diaries, official reports, scientific articles, and other original sources, Byerly tells a grave tale about the limits of modern medicine and warfare.