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Calling themselves “quarantine tourists,” they trace the footsteps of “philanthropist, vegetarian, and prison-reform advocate” John Howard, who, in 1785, set out to inspect the condition of people placed in Mediterranean lazarettos, or quarantine hospitals.

In the Philadelphia area, a gracious lazaretto in the Georgian style was inaugurated beside the Delaware River six years after an outburst of yellow fever in 1793 claimed the life of one in 10 residents.

They even created quarantine stations on military bases, the equivalent of Venice’s island lazarettos, where, in the time of the doges, the infected awaited their fate outside the city.

Charleston, center of the African slave trade, sponsored since 1712 several pest houses on Sullivan Island for the protection of its population; Savannah’s lazaretto was erected on Tybee Island in 1768.

Originating in Italian and Adriatic cities in the 1470s, it gradually spread throughout Europe and large facilities known as “lazarettos” were constructed to house people and merchandise from places suspected of infection.