EVB2936505: Polio (Poliomyelitis) virus, the cause of Infantile Paralysis, was discovered in 1908 by Karl Landsteiner. The vaccine for polio was developed between 1948 and 1953, when the researchers were able to grow large amounts of the virus, and Jonas Salk developed a safe killed-virus vaccine / Bridgeman Images
EVB2936572: Hospital staff are examining a patient in a tank respirator, iron lung, during a Rhode Island polio epidemic. The iron lung encased the thoracic cavity externally in an air-tight chamber. The chamber was used to create a negative pressure around the thoracic cavity, thereby causing air to rush into the lungs to equalize intrapulmonary pressure. c. 1960 / Bridgeman Images
EVB2936590: Adah B. Thoms (1870-1943), African American registered nurse who co-founded the National Association of Colored Nurses (with Martha Franklin) in 1912. The organization campaigned for integration of black nurses in hospitals, in nursing education, and in the U.S. military. Print from PATHFINDERS, A HISTORY OF THE PROGRESS OF COLORED GRADUATE NUYRSES, 1927 / Bridgeman Images
EVB2936772: DEPARTURE FROM THE OLD HOMESTEAD, an 1862 photograph by George Barnard shows a American family on the move during the Civil War. The pipe smoking woman may be a descendant of early Scotch-Irish settlers who populated the Appalachians in the 18th century, and whose women smoked pipes into the 20th century, Barnard, George N. and Gibson, James F. (fl.1860s) / Bridgeman Images