Place: Webb Wesconnett Library, 6887 103rd Street, Jacksonville, Florida

Speaker: Peter Mullen

Topic:History of the Spanish Flu in the American South

Brief Description: 100 Year Anniversary of the 1918 – 1920 Pandemic. The toll of history’s worst epidemic surpasses all the military deaths in World War I and World War II combined, and it may have begun in the USA. Where were you or your ancestors in 1918 – 1920? Did any family members die during that time frame? Learn about the origins of influenza as a zoonotic disease resulting from the domestication of wild animals throughout the history of human civilization. Learn how the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control strive to produce a yearly influenza vaccine to protect us from another pandemic.

Speaker Bio: Peter Mullen is a native born Kentuckian and a graduate of the University of Louisville and Western Kentucky University earning degrees in Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science and currently living in Callahan, Florida where he is a retired professor at Florida State College at Jacksonville. He is a member of the Speakers Bureau for the Georgia Historical Society, Sons of Confederate Veterans, and Sons of Union Veterans; he lectures to professional and historical societies nation wide promoting history and culture of the South. He has been a member of the prestigious Sons of Confederate Veterans Sesquicentennial Society since April 21, 2014. Professor Mullen was commissioned by Governor Steven L. Beshear of the Commonwealth of Kentucky as a Kentucky Colonel on September 20, 2011 in the 220th year of the Commonwealth. He is a member of the Golden Alumni Society of the University of Louisville, a recipient of the Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal – the highest non-lineage honor bestowed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and notary in the State of Florida. He is currently the Program Education Coordinator for the West Nassau Genealogical Society, Callahan, Florida.