“We should always keep in mind that people in the past are very, very smart,” James Esposito said before diving into the history of masks. “Even before the germ had been identified in the 1850s … people would wear haggard shirts or cloths over their faces when they were working down in mines or working in tanneries.”
Esposito is a PhD candidate in environmental history and the history of technology at Ohio State University. His dissertation is about breathing apparatus and diving technology, but since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he’d been getting asked more frequently about the history of masks in particular.
The timeline below includes portions of Esposito’s research as well as other modern day sources to give a brief overview of the history of using masks to prevent the spread of disease.