Typhoid Mary

This illustration was accompanied by a short biography I wrote of Mary Mallon, aka ‘Typhoid Mary’, and was published on a now-extinct website. I’ve unfortunately lost my text from this time. I was very interested to learn about this strange woman from Cookstown, who represented the first well-studied / recorded case of asymptomatic TB. She made a lot of people gravely ill (even caused deaths) as she refused to accept the (admittedly quite new idea) that while she wasn’t presenting with symptoms, she carried the deadly disease round New York with her. It’s a pretty sad story.

 

The real life Mary Mallon didn’t look like this, she was a much more rough and ready Tyrone woman, but I was heavily influenced by Beardsley at the time, and trying my hand at his ornate and stately style.

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