PRESS RELEASE- For Release 8/11/2025
Media Contact: Natalie Oslund
natalie.oslund@archives.alabama.gov
(334) 353-1881
FOOD FOR THOUGHT LUNCHTIME LECTURE AT THE ARCHIVES
THURSDAY, AUGUST 21 AT 12:00PM
ALABAMA’S MOSQUITO WARRIOR: WILLIAM C. GORGAS
PRESENTED BY CAROL BYERLY
Montgomery, AL (08/11/2025) – The Alabama Department of Archives & History (ADAH) will continue its 2025 Food for Thought lunchtime lecture series on Thursday, August 21, at 12:00pm CT. Carol Byerly will present Alabama's Mosquito Warrior: William C. Gorgas. The program will be held in the ADAH’s Joseph M. Farley Alabama Power Auditorium in Montgomery. It will also be livestreamed on the ADAH’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Admission is FREE.
Historian Carol Byerly has taught at the University of Colorado Boulder and has served as a research scholar of military medical history for the U.S. Army Office of the Surgeon General. She has also worked for the U.S. Congress and the American Red Cross. Her new biography of William Crawford Gorgas, The Mosquito Warrior, builds on her extensive research, which includes the 1918 influenza pandemic in the U.S. Army, the history of tuberculosis in the U.S. Army, and the medical challenges of constructing the Panama Canal. She is the author of Good Tuberculosis Men: The Army Medical Department’s Struggle with Tuberculosis and Fever of War: The Influenza Epidemic in the U.S. Army during World War.
General William C. Gorgas left behind a rich archival legacy, including family correspondence, journals, and newspaper clippings, as well as extensive records from the U.S. Army, the U.S. Congress, and the Panama Canal Commission. These materials, housed at the University of Alabama, the Library of Congress, the University of Virginia, and the National Archives, span more than four decades. Byerly’s presentation will seek to illuminate General Gorgas's career in medicine and public health.
For additional information, contact Alex Colvin at alex.colvin@archives.alabama.gov or (334) 353-4689. A complete schedule of our 2025 lunchtime lecture series is available at archives.alabama.gov. Food for Thought 2025 is sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Alliance and the Friends of the Alabama Archives.
The Alabama Department of Archives and History is the state’s government-records repository, a special-collections library and research facility, and home to the Museum of Alabama, the state history museum. It is located in downtown Montgomery, directly across Washington Avenue from the State Capitol. The Museum of Alabama is open Monday through Saturday from 8:30 to 4:30. The EBSCO Research Room is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 to 4:30. To learn more, visit www.archives.alabama.gov or call (334) 242-4364.
###