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Interlude: The Care and Cure of Tuberculosis
the well heeled, developed during Europe’s 1850s Sanatorium Movement. These notions sailed across the Atlantic in 1885, when tubercular New York physician Edward Livingston Trudeau opened the “Little Red Cottage” in Saranac Lake, New York. Trudeau believed the European model helped him, and opened his small new facility to treat two infected factory girls. Lung disease specialists soon decided that high, dry air and sunshine, which New Mexico had in abundance, offered the best odds. This did not surprise physician Josiah Gregg, who traded over the Santa Fe Trail in the 1830s and 1840s, and lost his tuberculosis along the desert way. Some, like Gregg, came by covered wagon, while others walked. The arrival of the railroad in 1879 provided easier transportation for these “health seekers” who poured into the state, seeking only a little more life. Doctors sent patients westward, for to stay in the polluted, crowded Midwest and East meant certain demise. Despite a faint glimmer of hope, “go west, young man” was an indeterminate banishment from family, friends, loved ones, and roots.
Above: Getting Well brochure
Presbyterian Healthcare Services Archive
Left: The Albuquerque Booster
Courtesy: The Albuquerque Museum, E 289 A
circa 1905
Below: Former Mayor and Mrs. Henry Jaffa, Commercial Club, interior, Gold Avenue and Fourth Street
Courtesy: Center for Southwest Research, 1978.050.107
1892
New western villages were proud of their settlements. “Boosting the town” meant bragging in pamphlets, booklets, and advertisements designed to attract businesses and residents. Such publications tended to “accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative,” and on occasion, outright lied. Albuquerque was no exception. City
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