The October 1776 inoculation card of Nicholas Brown and his children. In the late 1770s, smallpox swept through New England, and through the ranks of the Continental Army. Rhode Island’s General Assembly passed a law in June 1776 to facilitate inoculation, and hospital records show that many of Providence’s prominent families, including the Browns—benefactors of the university that would eventually bear their name—took advantage of the opportunity. In early 1777, George Washington required the inoculation of American troops.
Photograph by Rythum Vinoben for The Atlantic. Document courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library.
