Face masks during 1918 flu pandemic? Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum has proof

Editor's note: The story has been updated to reflect the Loomis family photo was taken in La Jolla, Calif., not Colorado Springs.

In a black-and-white photograph, two barefooted children standing in the dirt road are wearing face masks.

It was taken more than 100 years ago.

On Monday, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum Facebook page posted the photo in an effort to show some similarities between the 1918 influenza and COVID-19 pandemics, particularly when it comes to face masks. The picture shows Phillip and Barbara — children of Colorado Springs resident Sara Cartwright Loomis — looking away from the camera in La Jolla, Calif., where the family also resided.

The photo came from "the many photograph albums" by Loomis, the post read. It was used by the Pioneers Museum to discuss the impact of the flu pandemic in Colorado Springs.

"State and local governments across the country advised wearing face masks, ordered home quarantines, enforced social distancing, closed public buildings and prohibited gatherings to battle the spread of the disease," the Pioneers Museum wrote in the post.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

The post continues to say that city health officer Dr. George B. Gilmore announced "the most drastic and all-embracing closing order ever issued in Colorado Springs" on Oct. 4, 1918. All public buildings were closed, including schools and movie theaters.

According to the Pioneers Museum, local physicians recommended in a Nov. 25, 1918 edition of The Gazette to continue the ban and use of face masks by anyone with a cough or cold.