Alethea Drexler
archives assistant
Last month’s image exhibit talked a little bit about the high rate of poliomyelitis in the Houston area during the 1940’s and 1950’s, and some of the institutions that sought to treat and rehabilitate its victims.
The following series is from the Victory Over Polio campaign, which set out to mass-vaccinate Harris county residents in July 1962. It was sponsored by the Junior Chamber of Commerce [Jaycees] and the Harris County Medical Society.
All of these are from Institutional Collection 004, the Harris County Medical Society, box 1 of the “Victory Over Polio” series.
The money that was collected for the Victory campaign eventually formed the basis for the funding of the Health Museum, which began as an exhibit in the Museum of Natural Science.
Works consulted:
[1] Museum of Health and Medical Science.
[2] The Untold Museum District, Part III
[3] Harris County Medical Society newsletter, 2014 January 09.
[4] the Bellaire Texan [newspaper], July 18, 1962, on Portal to Texas History online.
[5] Texas Medical Center News online, July 2015.|
[6] Getty Images newsreel, 1962.
[7] Gonzales, J.R., Bayou City History blog at the Houston Chronicle, 2015 February 23.