100 Years Ago: Inspector of Hygiene for Alton Schools Makes Annual Report

Mrs. Daisy Creswick Rice, inspector of hygiene for the Alton schools, published her 1925/1926 school year annual report in June 1926, and an article in the Alton Evening Telegraph on June 28, 1926 summarized the findings. There were 1,032 cases of measles,125 cases of scarlet fever, and 26 cases of smallpox reported during the school year. There were also six cases of diphtheria, seven cases of whooping cough, 51 cases of mumps, and 46 cases of chickenpox.

A free dental clinic inside Garfield School operated from October 3, 1925 through June 11, 1926, to serve students whose parents could not afford to take them to a regular dentist. Students visited the dental clinic on 482 occasions, and treatments included 108 alloy fillings, 14 cement fillings, 10 synthetic fillings, 160 temporary and 93 permanent extractions, five x-rays, and 28 prophylactic cleanings. The approximate cost of the free dental work over the school year was $1,038, and 457 students received care. The school nurses also instructed children at all grade schools on how to properly brush their teeth.

The report also discussed the successful milk and crackers supplemental nutrition program. A total of 43,893 servings of milk and crackers were distributed during the school year: 14,822 were free, and 29,071 were paid for by the students receiving the snack. You can read more about the supplemental nutrition program in this article from last October.

Many of the epidemics that faced the 1926 school children are preventable today. Scientists and doctors around the world were frantically working on vaccines for many of these diseases in the late 1800s and early 1900s (sometimes even earlier), but it wasn’t until the 20th century that they came up with viable vaccines that could be mass-produced. The first measles vaccine was licensed for public use in 1963. Scarlet fever is now treated with antibiotics, but penicillin wasn’t discovered until 1928 and wasn’t mass-produced or distributed until 1945. Vaccines for whooping cough (also called pertussis) and diphtheria became available in the 1930s and 40s, effective mumps vaccines in the 1960s, and the chickenpox (varicella) vaccine was approved in the United States in 1995. A smallpox vaccine was actually available in 1926, but these days we have it even better: after vigorous vaccination efforts, the last known natural case of smallpox was in Somalia in 1977, and the World Health Organization declared it eradicated in 1980.

Sources

Aminov, Rustam I. “A Brief History of the Antibiotic Era: Lessons Learned and Challenges for the Future.” Frontiers in microbiology vol. 1 134. 8 Dec. 2010, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2010.00134https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3109405/

“A Brief History of Vaccines.” World Health Organization, 2026.https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/a-brief-history-of-vaccination

Galassi, Francesco Maria et al. “The history of pertussis: from an ancient scourge to a contemporary health burden.” Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene vol. 64,4 E507-E511. 1 Jan. 2024, doi:10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2023.64.4.3163https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10876032/

“History of the Measles Vaccine.” World Health Organization, 2026.https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/history-of-measles-vaccination

“Inspector of Hygiene Makes Annual Report.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), June 28, 1926.

Nagasawa, Masayuki. “Perspectives on the History and Epidemiology of the Varicella Virus Vaccine and Future Challenges.” Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 14,8 813. 16 Aug. 2025, doi:10.3390/pathogens14080813https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12389673/

Wolcott, Marion Post. “Preschool examination and check up in dental clinic at Greenbelt, Maryland.” U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, 1938. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USF34- 050005-D [P&P] LOT 1361 (corresponding photographic print) LOT 2316 (corresponding photographic print)https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017799270/

Prinzi, Andrea. “Scarlet Fever: A Deadly History and How it Prevails.” American Society for Microbiology, January 24, 2023.https://asm.org/articles/2023/january/scarlet-fever-a-deadly-history-and-how-it-prevails

“Report Shows Pupil Health Improvement.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), June 5, 1926.

“Smallpox.” World Health Organization. WHO, 2026.https://www.who.int/health-topics/smallpox

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