Bettmann / GettyOriginal caption, circa 1950: “Iron lungs line up in all-out war on polio at the new Ranchos Los Amigos Respiratory Center after being rushed from the Los Angeles County Hospital in specially constructed ambulances.” The iron lungs, or tank respirators, were used to aid the breathing of polio patients suffering from weakness or paralysis of their diaphragms.Los Angeles Examiner / USC Libraries / Corbis / GettySix-year-old polio victim Peter Cugno is visited by the famous actor William Boyd, best known for his role as the character Hopalong Cassidy, on January 1, 1952.Los Angeles Examiner / USC Libraries / Corbis / GettyPolio victim Bobby Sepulveda, age 4, is being taught to navigate stairs with his crutches by the physical therapist Elizabeth Bevan, in Los Angeles, California, on December 23, 1951. According to the CDC, “Before polio vaccines became available in the 1950s, polio paralyzed more than 15,000 people each year in the United States.”APIn this April 8, 1955, photo, Dr. Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine, describes how the vaccine is made and tested, in his laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh.Bettmann / GettyA nurse prepares children for a polio-vaccine shot, as part of a citywide test of the vaccine on elementary-school students in Pittsburgh.Bettmann / GettyOriginal caption from April 19, 1956: “Indianapolis, Indiana — At the Eli Lilly and Company plant, in the finishing department, the bottles are labeled, put into individual cartons with package literature, and then placed in shipping boxes marked ‘Rush.’ One finishing line packs 40,000 nine-dose vials in an eight-hour day.”Seymour Wally / NY Daily News Archive / GettyElvis Presley receives a polio vaccination from Dr. Leona Baumgartner and Dr. Harold Fuerst at CBS Studio 50, in New York City, on October 28, 1956.Bettmann / GettyOriginal caption from July 16, 1956: “Chicago, Ilinois — A line of parents and children, almost a block long, is shown outside a public Health Service Emergency Polio Vaccination Center here 7/16. Chicago has recorded 169 cases of polio so far this year—five times the amount at the same time last year—and free polio shots were ordered made available by public health Commissioner Herman Bundesen. This center is in Chicago’s West side, the critical area where almost half of the cases have been reported.”APOriginal caption: “Patsy Murr, first grader at Fulton School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, gets her Salk shot from Dr. Norman E. Snyder as she is held by Mrs. Walter Sourweine, April 25, 1955. Others view the proceedings with mixed emotions.”Bettmann / GettyOriginal caption: “Vice President Richard Nixon, a one time service station attendant, went back in the business briefly today to help the March of Dimes campaign in its drive against polio. The Vice President spent a short time servicing cars at a gas station which contributed its day’s profits to the campaign. Here, he ‘services’ the car of five year old Carol Vitiello, a polio victim.”Al Pucci / NY Daily News Archive / GettyOn March 11, 1957, federal employees line up to receive polio-vaccine shots at the General Post Office, Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street, in New York City.Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis / GettyLaboratory technicians harvest the polio virus as part of the process of producing the Salk polio vaccine. The vaccine will then be given to schoolchildren.CBS Photo Archive / GettyWalter Cronkite (left) welcomes guest Dr. Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine, on the CBS News program The Morning Show, on April 27, 1954, in New York.Bob Grannis / Leila Grossman / GettyThe radio station WSIX in Nashville, Tennessee, ran a promotion with American Airlines and the polio vaccine in 1955.H. Armstrong Roberts / ClassicStock / GettyA girl looks on as a vaccine shot is prepared, beside a vaccination-campaign sign and a spread of lollipops.Smith Collection / Gado / GettyAn aerial view of a crowd surrounding a city auditorium in San Antonio, Texas, awaiting polio immunization, in 1962.Bettmann / GettyOriginal caption from April 23, 1955: “San Diego, California — First and second graders at the Kit Carson School line up for Salk Polio vaccine shots April 16th. San Diego was the first community in the United States to start this Spring’s mass inoculation with the serum.”APOriginal caption: “This little girl swallows a lump of sugar served in a paper cup, and receives a few drops of the Sabin oral vaccine and protection against polio, on July 18, 1962, in Atlanta, Georgia. Scientists say the dread crippler could be wiped out eventually if everyone took the vaccine, but comparatively few people are taking it, except in communities which have had threatened epidemics or have been put on crash programs.”
