Author and historian Jane S. Smith's materials relating to Jonas Salk and the National Foundation/March of Dimes, collected while researching her book Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine (1990). The collection includes ephemera, interview transcripts, and sound recordings.
Jane S. Smith Collection on Jonas Salk, 1950-1993 (MSS 810)
Extent: 2 Linear feet (2 archives boxes, 4 card file boxes, and 1 oversize folder), + .822 GB of digital files
Digital Content
Selected sound recordings from the collection have digital use copies available upon request, which were provided by the donor (Ms. Smith had them created in 2003 by the Northwestern University Library, Digital Media Services). Two interview recordings exist only in digital format.
Jane S. Smith writes about the intersection of science, natural history, and popular culture. Her books have covered topics from the pioneering career of tastemaker Elsie de Wolfe to the development of the first polio vaccine, the long history of domesticated chickens, and the influential career of plant inventor Luther Burbank. (From Smith's website, cited in March 2019: http://www.janessmith.com/works.htm)
Author and historian Jane S. Smith's materials relating to Jonas Salk and the National Foundation/March of Dimes, collected while researching her book Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine (1990). The collection includes a small amount of March of Dimes and public health ephemera promoting polio prevention and the 1955 vaccine. The bulk of the collection consists of notes, transcripts and original recordings from Smith's interviews with Jonas Salk, members of the Salk family, and people familiar with the story of the 1955 vaccine development. It also includes recordings from an interview conducted in 1964 with Jonas Salk, possibly by Richard Carter (the interviewer is unidentified in the recordings).
Arranged in three series: 1) PAPERS, 2) INTERVIEWS - TRANSCRIPTS AND NOTES, and 3) INTERVIEWS - SOUND RECORDINGS.