Photo from the collections of the Library of Congress:
“Groves Bromo Quinine,” sign on a shack advertises a treatment for malaria, and other products; near Summerville, South Carolina. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott, December 1938. Library of Congress.
This photo was taken by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration, documenting how farmers and other Americans lived during the Great Depression.
1938 was a year before DDT’s insecticidal properties were discovered, and at least six years before DDT became available for civilian work against malaria and the mosquitoes who spread the parasites.
And the really funny thing?
U.S. cut malaria infections and malaria deaths by 90% between 1933 and 1942, wholly without DDT. U.S. beat malaria, leaving only vestiges for DDT to cleanup, after World War II.
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