Intendencia Municipal, “La Grippe” poster

Contributed by Matthijs Sluiter on Dec 30th, 2020. Artwork published in

October 1918

Intendencia Municipal, “La Grippe” poster — **Source: lapatria.uy** License: All Rights Reserved.

Intendencia Municipal
Dirección de salubridad
La Direccion de Salubridad exhorta a todos los habitanted del Departamento para cumplan las indicacciones del señor Presidente del Consejo Nacional de Higiene, que a continuación se expressan:
La Grippe

The Health Directorate urges all inhabitants of the Montevideo department of Urugay to comply with the instructions of the National Hygiene Council, to end “La Grippe”, the 1918–20 global influenza pandemic. The poster, dated October 29, 1918, was printed by “Imprenta Nacional” (the building still exists). The body text is divided in three sections: “How is contagion acquired”, “Treatment” and “Individual prevention”.

The headlines and introduction paragraph of the poster are set in Columbus. The extra bold type used for “La Grippe” (reminiscent of German Plakatstil lettering), the reversed-contrast slab serif used for Intendencia Municipal and the text typeface are yet unidentified.

This poster was found in one of many print collections on the website of La Patria “an archive dedicated to graphic arts in the Uruguayan territory”. Unfortunately, the collection that holds this poster comes without any additional information.

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Uruguay (30)
Montevideo (19)

In Sets

Colossal Combinations (Jay Mellor) (2113)
_st (GareyAdey) (75)
capstone (Mia Harris) (51)

1 Comment on “Intendencia Municipal, “La Grippe” poster”

Matthijs Sluiter says:
Dec 30th, 2020 6:11 pm

Over on Twitter, Gabriel Benderski shared a short version of the text in English:

The street poster (found in our National Library) was printed at the Imprenta Nacional, the state printing company, as part of the communications from the Ministry of Health to the population of Montevideo.

The indications mentioned are not far from those of today: To avoid contagion, a lot of hygiene, a lot of cleanliness, moral and physical tranquility are recommended to healthy people. Do not go to very frequented places such as, theaters, casinos, clubs, cafes, churches. etc.

Make sure that air and sun are not lacking in the rooms… if you lose your peace of mind and become a victim of panic, the organism will also lose its usual resistance and will leave the entrance to contagion free… each citizen puts their own part of it is to be able to stir it up, since the international prophylaxis against that evil has failed everywhere… to try to solve a currently insoluble problem is a scientific utopia. The grippe has so far despised in all countries, all administrative measures and all quarantines.