1923 French Map of Poland, Cholera Outbreak and Vaccination Measures

A curious and engaging c. 1923 map of Poland extensive manuscript annotations and highlights illustrating public health measures undertaken to contain a cholera outbreak in the wake of World War I (1914 - 1918), the country's last after battling the disease for decades.

A Closer Look

The map displays the borders of Poland after regaining its independence at the end of the First World War and a series of plebiscites and border wars resulted in the map seen here by 1923. However, the map's focus is epidemiological, not political. Poland had seen a series of cholera and other infectious disease outbreaks in the preceding centuries. Cholera had largely been defeated by the 1910s, and typhus was a more pressing concern, but the disruptions of war and refugee migrations at the end of the conflict reawakened concerns about the disease.

This map is in French, reflecting the expertise of that nation's doctors in bacteriology, immunization, and epidemiology, thanks in large part to the work of Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895). The eastern part of the country is divided into sections based on the strictness of vaccination measures, reflecting the severity of the outbreak in those regions. Other features, such as hospitals, inspection stations, and bacteriological stations, are also indicated as explained in the legend at bottom left. In addition to the clear, legible writing used in the legend and on the map, additional handwritten notes, quite illegible (one of them seemingly in Italian) also appear, perhaps the notes of field vaccination workers.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by an unknown author(s). It is undated, but the borders of Poland here correspond to those from 1923 until 1939, and other contextual elements (such as the wide availability of vaccines) also support a date after the First World War. With the extensive manuscript work, it is a one-of-a-kind work.