california medical legal-history
The Californian Mask Laws of 1918
<p>I am trying to find the text or at least the proper citation for the mask laws in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/us/mask-protests-1918.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">San Francisco</a> and other cities in 1918. However my research only tells me that they existed, <a href="https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-sanfrancisco.html#" rel="nofollow noreferrer">when they were enacted</a> and paraphrasing of the contents, and that they resulted in an open-air court on the street, where fines were contested and upheld. Yet I could not find either the proper reference to them or the original text. I am not in the US, so digging through the papers in the archives of LA and SF is impossible for me.</p>
<p>How should one cite these repealed/annulled laws and where can one find the verbatim text of at least one of them, most favorably the San Francisco one?</p>

<p>This was a resolution of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, passed on 1918-10-24 as the <em>Chronicle</em> reported the following day.</p>
<ul>
<li>&quot;<a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.0820flu.0009.280" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Everyone Is Compelled to Wear Masks by City Resolution</a>&quot;. <em>San Francisco Chronicle</em>, 1918-10-25.  page 1.</li>
</ul>
<p>The texts of resolutions may be obtained from the Clerk of the Board, but one needs to know the specific resolution number, or at least &quot;reasonably describe&quot; an identifiable resolution.  It is possible that &quot;mask wearing resolution passed on 1918-10-24&quot; is a reasonable description.  How many mask ordinances could the Board have passed that day?
☺</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://crmproxy.sfgov.org/Ef3/General.jsp?form=SSP_COB_Information&amp;page=SSP_COB_Information" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://crmproxy.sfgov.org/Ef3/General.jsp?form=SSP_COB_Information&amp;page=SSP_COB_Information</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Information from the Board on the WWW only goes back to 2000, and in the Legislative Research Centre to 1998.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://sfbos.org/resolutions" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://sfbos.org/resolutions</a></li>
</ul>

<p>After contacting the libraries of San Fransico and getting back a very helpful E-mail from the San Francisco Law Library  I can now answer it.</p>
<ul>
<li>It is likely that a copy of the ordinance text is retained at the San Francisco Law Library in the 1915 SF General Ordinances as a written or taped in addition.</li>
<li>The Journal of Proceedings of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, vol 13 (1918) contains the legislative intent as well as the original proposed and accepted &quot;mask law&quot; on page 898 and following. A digitized version is on <a href="https://archive.org/details/journalofproceed1918sanfrich/page/898/mode/2up?q=mask" rel="nofollow noreferrer">archive.org</a>, indicating further discussion of the topic later the year. The actual, first issued ordinance is:
<blockquote>
<p>Bill No. 5068, Ordinance No. -
(New Series), entitled, &quot;Providing for the wearing of masks or covering over the nose and mouth by certain persons during the prevalence of the epidemic of the so-called 'Spanish flu' and prescribing the penalty for violation thereof.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>The follow-up vol 14 (1919) starts on page 8 with discussing another &quot;mask law&quot; and adjourning that decision. A digital edition also exists on <a href="https://archive.org/details/journalofproceed1919sanfrich/page/8/mode/2up?q=mask" rel="nofollow noreferrer">archive.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Since <em>&quot;The Journal of Proceedings of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, vol 13 (1918), page 898&quot;</em> is a good citeable source, I ended my inquiry at that position, especially since there are only limited librarians able to look into the physical editions inside the archives and libraries.</p>
<p>Thank you <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/users/576/nate-eldredge">Nate</a> for hinting me to the right archives, I wouldn't have known which library to ask without you.</p>
