Throughout history, people have turned to artistic expression to cope with difficult realities, inspiring other artists and historians to do the same. This behaviour was clearly evident in the artistic responses to multiple plagues throughout history including the Black Death (1334-1353), the Great Plague of London (1665-1666), and the Spanish Flu (1918-1920). The Black Death warranted dramatic representations of the plague as seen in Luigi Sabatelli’s 18th-century etching interpretation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Il Decameron, and the more realistic representations of the plague such as Pierart dou Tielt’s illustrated depiction of a mass burial in Tournai (Belgium). The Great Plague of London was accompanied by other major events in London at the time, which together inspired many illustrations, etchings, and prints of the events. Some of these include wood prints from Walter George Bell’s book The Great Plague in London in 1665 and a collection of etched silver tankards commissioned by Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey. The Spanish Flu inspired both artists and governments to visually express the epidemic. This is seen in a public health advertisement for the Japanese Ministry of Interior, the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch’s self-portrait of his experience with the plague, and a print of the personification of the Spanish Flu, known as the Soldier of Naples.