Stephen Girard

Stephen Girard was a French-born merchant, shipowner and banker who became one of the wealthiest men in the early United States. During the 1793 yellow fever epidemic he volunteered to manage Bush Hill hospital with Peter Helm, improving sanitation, supplies and patient care and appointing Jean Devèze as its principal physician.

In Fever 1793, Girard’s intervention explains the change in Bush Hill from a place of neglect into an organised hospital where Mattie can recover. His historical service forms part of the novel’s contrast between civic abandonment and practical relief work.