US History

Science and Technology

Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)

This collection use primary sources to explore the polio epidemic and the development of the polio vaccine.

A 1934 photograph of patients at the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation holding a giant card for President Roosevelt as part of a fundraiser.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt frequently visited Warm Springs, Georgia, using the springs to help heal his legs, which were damaged from polio. 

A photograph of polio patients watching President Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral procession, April 1945.

President Roosevelt used the therapeutic waters of the warm springs in Warm Springs, Georgia and visited annually. 

A photograph of Fredrick Goodall, aged six, doing leg exercises with his nurse. Goodall contracted polio during a 1930s epidemic. 

The syringe and vial used to test the Salk polio vaccine on children who already had polio, 1952.

The children were residents of the D. T. Watson Home for Crippled Children near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The purpose of vaccinating children already suffering from polio was to demonstrate an increased immunity to the disease. 

A news film of an unidentified man interviewed about the distribution of an oral polio vaccine, 1961.

The interview discusses the likelihood that the oral polio vaccine developed by Albert Sabin would not be available in time for “polio season” during the summer months. Polio was easily spread in parks, pools, and other popular public summer locations. 

An excerpt from an 1867 publication by Dr. Charles Fayette Taylor called *Infantile Paralysis, and Its Attendant Deformities.* 

Dr. Taylor discusses treatment options using various apparatus designed to stretch the specified muscles in patients. 

A news film of Dr. Albert Sabin, who developed the oral polio vaccine, commenting on the vaccine in 1961. 

 Dr. Sabin stresses the continued need for the vaccine even though case numbers dropped substantially.

 A photograph of a 1939 World’s Fair exhibit on infantile paralysis.

The exhibit included an iron lung, used with patients that could not breathe independently.

A 1940s photograph of a child in an iron lung, used to treat polio patients that could not breathe on their own due to paralysis.

A photograph of a man with a sign to raise money for the March of Dimes Foundation to help prevent “birth defects, arthritis, and polio.”

An excerpt from a 1916 pamphlet on infantile paralysis delivered before the New York Academy of Medicine by Dr. Simon Flexner.

Questions

1. Using the [syringe and vial](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/there-is-no-cure-for-polio/sources/949), the [news film about distribution of a polio vaccine](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/there-is-no-cure-for-polio/sources/950), and the [news film about Dr. Albert Sabin](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/there-is-no-cure-for-polio/sources/952), explain how Dr. Salk’s and Dr. Sabin’s responses to polio compare to doctors currently fighting Ebola, HIV, AIDS, or Zikka Virus.
2. Using the [syringe and vial](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/there-is-no-cure-for-polio/sources/949), the [news film about distribution of a polio vaccine](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/there-is-no-cure-for-polio/sources/950), and the [news film about Dr. Albert Sabin](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/there-is-no-cure-for-polio/sources/952), assess the importance of the Salk and Sabin vaccines. 
3. In the [photograph of a child in an iron lung](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/there-is-no-cure-for-polio/sources/954), both the nurse and the child are models. The child did not have polio. Why do you think this photograph was taken with models and not an actual patient using the iron lung?
4. Consider the [photograph of patients with a giant card](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/there-is-no-cure-for-polio/sources/946) and the [photograph of patients watching President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s funeral procession](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/there-is-no-cure-for-polio/sources/947). Using these photographs and what you have learned from additional sources, assess whether President Roosevelt’s personal experiences with polio influenced the race to find a vaccine. 


Activity

The March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation was founded in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a polio survivor, in response to the polio epidemics sweeping the nation. Using the [photograph of a man with a sign](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/there-is-no-cure-for-polio/sources/955) for inspiration, divide students into several groups and ask them to develop a 1940s radio or print advertisement for the foundation to raise money and awareness of polio. Have each group present to the class. 


Teaching Guide: Exploring the Polio Epidemic and Vaccine

Resources

1. “[Whatever happened to polio?](http://amhistory.si.edu/polio/),” Smithsonian National Museum of American History. 
2. [Jonas Salk and Albert Bruce Sabin](http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/online-resources/chemistry-in-history/themes/pharmaceuticals/preventing-and-treating-infectious-diseases/salk-and-sabin.aspx), Chemical Heritage Foundation. 
3. “[FDR and Polio](http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/aboutfdr/polio.html),” Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. 
4. “[Polio Eradication](https://apps.nlm.nih.gov/againsttheodds/index.cfm?startrow=20),” *Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health*, US National Library of Medicine. 
5. [The Polio Crusade](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/introduction/polio-introduction/), PBS American Experience. 

Overview

There are few diseases in the United States associated so closely with panic and terror as poliomyelitis (polio), a highly contagious illness that lives in the throat and intestinal tract. In the twentieth century, polio epidemics killed and disabled tens of thousands of children, causing paralysis, muscle atrophy, breathing and swallowing problems, and a myriad of other complications. What first appeared as a cold or flu could quickly become a debilitating disability and even end in death. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was left permanently disabled, without use of his legs, after a diagnosis of polio at age 39. The polio vaccine developed in the 1950s by Jonas Salk and an oral vaccine later developed by Albert Sabin ultimately eradicated polio in the United States. 

English

There is No Cure for Polio

no-cure-polio_04_21b28a7a1dff36da98d2f0fd4e4505b1.jpg

Courtesy of the National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center via the Smithsonian Institution.

“Salk Polio Vaccine, Mahoney Strain,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/21b28a7a1dff36da98d2f0fd4e4505b1.

The syringe and vial used to test the Salk polio vaccine on children who already had polio, 1952.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 4 of 11 in the Primary Source Set There is No Cure for Polio