I Got My COVID-19 Vaccine Pin, metal pin distributed at a vaccination megasite in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, April 8, 2021. 📷 Science History Institute
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Since the news is (still) reporting a surge in COVID infections, an outbreak of monkeypox, and even a confirmed case of polio, we’re really glad it’s National Immunization Awareness Month. Want to know what the smallpox vaccine supply chain was like in the early 1800s? There’s a Disappearing Spoon podcast for that. You can learn even more about the history of vaccination by exploring our Animals and the Making of Human Vaccines digital exhibition. We’ve got a Distillations article on an overlooked polio fighter named Isabel Morgan and a biography on Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, who both developed vaccines for the once-dreaded disease in the 1950s. There’s also a book in our digital collections detailing the life of Louis Pasteur, the French microbiologist who is credited with discovering the principles of vaccination.
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Monday, August 8, 2022
6:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. EDT
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Join us TONIGHT for this month’s Science on Tap virtual talk featuring LeeAnn Haaf, an estuary science manager at the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary. Haaf will explore how climate and sea level are affecting American holly trees in a low-elevation forest along the St. Jones River in Delaware.
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Beckman Facilities, Irvine, California, aerial photograph of the Beckman Biotechnology Facility, the site of research on hepatitis, monoclonal antibodies, and HIV screening, 1974. 📷 Science History Institute
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Museum Programs & Activities
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Saturday, August 13, 2022
2:00 p.m. EDT
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From Rachel Carson to ACT UP, our “drop-in” Science & Activism Tour explores how scientists and activists have shaped discovery and created change with stories of environmental justice, patients’ rights, and community science. Admission is free and no reservations are necessary. |
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Monday, August 15, 2022–Thursday, August 18, 2022
10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. EDT
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This online workshop will introduce attendees to all aspects of the interview process, including general oral history theory and methodology, in-person and remote interviewing techniques, legal and ethical issues, transcription practices, archiving, recording equipment and its use, data management, and other relevant topics. |
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Museum Programs & Activities
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Saturday, August 20, 2022
11:00 a.m. EDT
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Dive into a day of family-friendly, Downstream-related activities that includes storytime and exploration of our exhibitions. Family Day takes place the third Saturday of each month. Admission is free and no reservations are necessary. This month we’re reading The Snowflake: A Water Cycle Story by Neil Waldman with special guest Thembi Palmer. We will also be making water cycle bracelets! |
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Museum Programs & Activities
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Saturday, August 27, 2022
2:00 p.m. EDT
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Join our museum’s Gallery Guides for a “drop-in” Women in Chemistry Tour highlighting the central role of women in shaping chemistry and the material sciences throughout history. Admission is free and no reservations are necessary.
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Illustration depicting the Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition, an international healthcare mission to combat smallpox, 1803–1806. 📷 Carles Puche/Mètode
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When the global vaccine supply chain depended on children.
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The story of Louis Pasteur and the development of the rabies vaccine.
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Reconsidering the fate of an overlooked polio fighter.
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The virus that made America talk about abortion.
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Encountering rare earths in art, environments, and the phone in my pocket.
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Beware! The Vaccine, 18th-century French caricature included in The History of Inoculation and Vaccination for the Prevention and Treatment of Disease, circa 1913. 📷 Science History Institute
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Our digital collections house more than 12,850 curated items, including several vaccine-related materials:
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Portrait of Albert Calmette, photograph of the French physician, bacteriologist, and immunologist who developed the first effective tuberculosis vaccine, circa 1923
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The Life of Pasteur, biography of Louis Pasteur, the French chemist and microbiologist who is credited with discovering the principles of vaccination, 1911
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Left: Jonas Salk and a nurse administering the polio vaccine. 📷 Jonas Salk Polio Vaccine Collection, 1953–2005, UA.90.F89, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh. Right: Albert Sabin demonstrates how the oral polio vaccine is given to children. 📷 Hauck Center for the Albert B. Sabin Archives, Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions, University of Cincinnati.
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In the 1950s Jonas Salk (1914–1995) and Albert Sabin (1906–1993) developed separate vaccines to combat polio, once one of the most-feared childhood diseases in the United States. Salk became a national hero when his vaccine was approved in 1955; it was replaced by Sabin’s oral vaccine in the 1960s. In 1994 the World Health Organization declared that naturally occurring poliovirus had been eradicated from the Western Hemisphere due to mass immunization.
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Close-up view of our Object Explorer touch table, which features the science behind such objects as a syringe and the history of vaccines. 📷 Science History Institute
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Our museum is open Wednesday–Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Admission is free.
Hach Gallery
Horiba Gallery
DuPont Gallery
Lobby
Building Façade
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Now more than ever it’s important to tell the stories of science. Help us continue this work by supporting the Science History Institute.
You can also support the Institute while shopping on Amazon at smile.amazon.com or by asking Alexa to donate to the Science History Institute. |
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