Searching for photos of bubonic plague is a weirdly frustrating rabbit hole. You’d think with all the history books and documentaries out there, we'd have a massive database of grainy, terrifying images from the Black Death. But that’s the first thing people get wrong. The Black Death—the big one that wiped out half of Europe—happened in the 1300s. Cameras didn't exist. There are no "photos" of that era, only woodcuts and paintings of people looking miserable or dancing with skeletons.
When you actually see authentic photos of bubonic plague, you’re usually looking at the Third Pandemic. This started in the mid-19th century, specifically around the 1850s in Yunnan, China, and eventually hit Hong Kong and San Francisco by the turn of the century. This was the first time the disease met the lens. It's a jarring visual shift. We move from stylized medieval art to the cold, clinical reality of black-and-white photography.
Why the plague looks different in real life
If you scroll through archival collections like the Wellcome Collection or the National Library of Medicine, the images aren't always what you'd expect from Hollywood movies. There’s a lot less "green skin" and a lot more swelling. The hallmark of the bubonic variety is the bubo. It's basically a lymph node that has become a battleground. It swells up, often in the groin, armpit, or neck, and it looks like a hard, painful lump.
In many early 20th-century photos of bubonic plague from India or Vietnam, you see doctors pointing at these swellings with clinical detachment. The skin isn't always rotting off yet. That happens later if the infection becomes septicemic. Honestly, the most haunting photos aren't the ones of the bodies. It's the photos of the "plague measures."
You'll see entire neighborhoods in Honolulu’s Chinatown being burned to the ground in 1900 because the board of health thought that was the only way to stop the rats. They were wrong, by the way. The fire got out of control and destroyed thousands of homes.
The San Francisco cover-up
There is a specific set of photos of bubonic plague from San Francisco around 1900 that tells a wild story about politics and denial. When the plague hit the city, the Governor of California, Henry Gage, literally tried to pretend it wasn't happening. He didn't want to hurt the economy. He even called the doctors who found the plague "fakes."
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But the photos don't lie. Federal health officers like Joseph Kinyoun took pictures of the victims in Chinatown to prove to the world that the "Black Death" had reached American shores. These images are bleak. They show cramped living conditions and the systematic hunting of rats.
Spotting the fakes and reenactments
You have to be careful when looking for "historical" images. A lot of what pops up in a search for photos of bubonic plague are actually:
- Movie stills from films like The Seventh Seal or Black Death.
- Modern plague doctors in Venice during Carnival (those masks weren't even that common during the 1300s).
- Medical training photos from the Vietnam War era.
The "Plague Doctor" mask is the biggest offender. While there are a few sketches from the 17th century showing that bird-like mask, there are almost no genuine, period-accurate photos of bubonic plague doctors wearing the full leather suit in an actual medical setting. Most of the photos you see of people in those masks are modern "steampunk" costumes or museum displays.
Actual photos from the 1890s plague outbreaks show doctors wearing standard suits, or later, white clinical gowns and basic cloth masks. It was much less theatrical and much more depressing.
The reality of the Third Pandemic
By the time photography was widespread, we understood germ theory. Sort of. In the 1894 Hong Kong outbreak, Alexandre Yersin (the guy Yersinia pestis is named after) was working in a tiny straw hut. He was literally competing against Shibasaburo Kitasato to find the bacteria first.
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There are photos of these makeshift labs. They look incredibly dangerous. No biohazard suits. No gloves. Just men in waistcoats leaning over microscopes, peering at samples taken from the dead. It’s a miracle more of them didn't die during the process.
What the plague looks like today
Yes, the plague is still around. It’s not a "medieval" disease. It’s a biological reality. Every year, people in the Southwestern United States, Madagascar, and Mongolia contract it. When you look at modern photos of bubonic plague symptoms, they are usually in color and used for medical journals.
- The Buboes: Still the primary indicator. They look like smooth, red or purple lumps.
- Gangrene: In septicemic plague, the fingers and toes turn black. This is where the "Black Death" name likely originated. The tissue literally dies while the person is still alive because the blood stops flowing to the extremities.
- The Bacteria: Under a microscope, Yersinia pestis looks like a safety pin. It has "polar staining," meaning the ends are darker than the middle.
Most modern photos focus on the ecology—the prairie dogs in Colorado or the fleas found on rodents in Madagascar. We don't see the mass graves of the 1300s anymore because we have antibiotics. If you catch it early and hit it with streptomycin or gentamicin, the "terror" of the plague evaporates.
Misconceptions about the photos
People often confuse smallpox photos with plague photos. Smallpox creates pustules all over the body—thousands of them. The bubonic plague is more "localized" in the lymph system. If you see a photo of a person covered in tiny dots, that’s not the plague. That’s something else entirely.
Another common mix-up involves the 1918 Flu. Because both involved masks and mass death, people often tag Spanish Flu photos as "plague." Look at the dates. If it's 1918 and everyone is wearing gauze masks in a giant gymnasium-turned-hospital, it’s the flu.
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The cultural impact of these images
Why do we keep looking for these images? There’s a certain "memento mori" aspect to it. Looking at photos of bubonic plague reminds us how fragile the "modern world" really is. In the San Francisco photos, you see people standing around in bowler hats and fine dresses just blocks away from where people were dying of a disease they thought was extinct.
It’s a reminder that the environment matters. The photos of the plague in the 1900s led to the first real "urban renewal" projects, though they were often fueled by racism against Asian communities. They used the plague as an excuse to tear down neighborhoods they didn't like. The camera was a tool for health, but also a tool for "othering" people.
Actionable steps for researchers and students
If you are looking for authentic visual records, don't just use a generic image search. You will get 90% AI-generated junk or movie posters.
- Visit the Wellcome Collection online. They have the most extensive digitized archive of the Third Pandemic, specifically the outbreaks in India.
- Search the CDC Public Health Image Library (PHIL). This is where you find the real clinical photos of what the bacteria and the buboes look like in a modern context.
- Check the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Use the term "Yersinia pestis" or "Third Pandemic" rather than just "bubonic plague" to find more specific historical records.
- Verify the source. If an image looks "too perfect" or cinematic, it probably is. Real historical photos from the 1890s are often poorly lit, slightly blurry, and lack the "horror movie" aesthetic.
Understanding the visual history of the plague helps de-mystify it. It stops being a boogeyman from a fairy tale and becomes what it actually is: a manageable, albeit dangerous, bacterial infection that we’ve been documenting for over 150 years.