Malaria Control in Tennessee, 1930-1940

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About this Exhibit

America in the 1930s is best remembered for the Great Depression, a time when poverty and unemployment skyrocketed. Somber images of demoralized men standing in long lines outside of food banks, or pictures of worn-out barns barely standing upright against a rural backdrop might come to mind. Millions of Americans had their lives upended by this economic crisis. To fight the Depression and bring widespread, multifaceted poverty relief to Americans, the Roosevelt administration enacted The New Deal in 1933. The New Deal consisted of multiple social and economic reforms, one of which was the Tennessee Valley Authority, or the TVA. The TVA was created to modernize the rural South by bringing hydroelectric power to the region. This would involve the construction of multiple dams along the Tennessee River, in turn creating thousands of jobs. The TVA has a lesser-known project, though; it spearheaded malaria control projects. Malaria was endemic in the South in the 1920s and 1930s, but by the early 1940s, malaria rates had declined drastically in the Tennessee Valley region. The TVA effectively brought the eradication of malaria in the South by the 1950s.This virtual exhibit will explore the details of the TVA’s malaria control activities, including leadership, methods, and public health reports.

Malaria and Its Control in the Tennessee Valley

Creator Tennessee Valley Authority

Publisher Tennessee Valley Authority

Date 1941

Description

This book contains a record of malaria control activities in the Tennessee Valley from the 1930s and early 1940s. It contains a disease profile of malaria and descriptions of where in the Tennessee Valley conditions were favorable to malaria. The publication also describes malaria control activities, including the treatment of land with larvicides like Paris Green, the use of netting to create a barrier between man and mosquito, the improvement of drainage systems, and the cleaning of shorelines. The authors of this book ask for continued support and funding for malaria control activities in the Tennessee Valley.

Source History of Medicine Collections, Vanderbilt University Libraries