Aimee Shulman, MA student, discusses the impact of the plague of London in 1665-1666. She discusses the treatments of the day and explores the efforts of the London city government to combat the spread of the plague. In the podcast she talks about the illness itself, how it spread to England, and other cities that were affected by the plague. Shulman explains the origin of the term “quarantine” and highlights the efforts of one village to quarantine themselves from neighboring villages. She concludes by exploring what might have been the end of the plague and the connection to the Great London Fire of 1666.

Image credit: Painting titled An Incident in the Great Plague of London by Alexander Christie (1807-1860). The painting was made around 1840 and is part of the collection held by the National Galleries of Scotland. The image is in the public domain.