Outbreak in Washington, D. C.: the 1857 Mystery of the National Hotel Disease (Disaster Ser.)

By: Kerry Walters

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Synopsis: An account of the mysterious epidemic among nineteenth-century hotel guests that &“enthralled the country and nearly took the life of the-President-elect&”(The Washington Post). The National was once the grandest hotel in the capital. In 1857, it twice hosted President-elect James Buchanan and his advisors, and on both occasions, most of the party was quickly stricken by an acute illness. Over the course of several months, hundreds fell ill, and over thirty died from what became known as the National Hotel disease. Buchanan barely recovered enough to give his inauguration speech. Rumors ran rampant across the city and the nation. Some claimed that the illness was born of a sewage &“effluvia,&” while others darkly speculated about an assassination attempt by either abolitionists or southern slaveowners intent on war. In this concise and captivating account of the events—as well as the panic and rumors surrounding them—Kerry Walters investigates the mysteries of the National Hotel disease.