[joe_the_user]

The interesting thing about early 20th century is the wild swings in the suicide rate, a much more extreme series of swings than any time later. It seems like an indication that during that time, some greater degree of "contagion" was going on relative to later time (not sure from what). Another factor might be spottier records and a smaller population. The suicides from the 1929 stock crash were fodder for much literature and the seems to show an increase up to 1929 and then a steep decrease.

I know that during the 19th century, Goethe's "The Sorrows Of Young Werther"[1] was reputed to have provoked a rash of suicides.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sorrows_of_Young_Werther

[DanBC]

Looking at historical rates of suicide is really hard because it was still a crime in many places, and there was strong social convention to not name something as suicide unless the evidence was overwhelming.

In England the law changed in 1961, but coroners still had to use "beyond all reasonable doubt" to come to a conclusion of suicide until 2018. There was a case (Maughan) that changed the burden of proof to "balance of probabilities".

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2019/809.html

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2018/1955.html

In the US you have the added complexity of different laws for each state, with different standards that coroners work to. Getting coroners to work to common standards is notoriously difficult.