Room I

The History

From an ancient affliction to a worldwide terror — and finally to the brink of eradication. A walk through the rise of polio, the fear it spread, and the response that changed medicine forever.

A long line of parents and children waiting outside a public health clinic for polio vaccination in the 1950s
Artistic, AI-generated depiction — public polio vaccination, c. 1950s
  1. Antiquity
    An ancient Egyptian stele depicting a figure with a withered, shortened leg — an early possible depiction of polio

    An ancient affliction

    Polio is far older than the epidemics it is remembered for. An Egyptian carving from over three thousand years ago appears to show a withered leg — the disease's signature. For most of history it remained rare and scattered, hidden in the background of human life.

  2. c. 1900
    A crowded turn-of-the-century city street, evoking the urban life in which polio epidemics began to spread

    Suddenly, everywhere

    Around 1900, polio changed character — from rare to epidemic. The cruel irony: improving sanitation meant infants were no longer exposed early, when the disease is mildest. A cleaner world produced a more dangerous one, and the great epidemics began.

  3. 1940s–50s
    An empty sun-drenched swimming pool, a haunting image of summers interrupted by polio outbreaks

    The summers of fear

    Each summer brought dread. Swimming pools closed, playgrounds emptied, cinemas stood silent. Parents kept children indoors, watching for the first signs of fever. Polio became the defining fear of a generation of families.


  4. For a few months every year, an invisible enemy emptied the streets of children.
  5. The Ward
    An iron lung respirator in a 1950s hospital ward, with a nurse standing attentively nearby

    Machines that breathed

    For those whose breathing muscles failed, survival meant the iron lung — rows of steel cylinders filling hospital wards. It became the era's most haunting image. Explore it in Room II →

  6. 1938
    Hands dropping coins into a donation collection during a polio charity fundraising drive

    A nation mobilizes

    A president who himself lived with paralysis helped turn private fear into public action. A vast campaign of small donations funded the search for a cure — proof that an entire society could organize itself against a single disease.

  7. 1955–1961
    A child receiving the oral polio vaccine on a sugar cube

    The breakthrough

    Then came the vaccines. The first arrived as an injection and was met with public jubilation. A few years later, a second could be given as a single drop on a sugar cube — simple enough to reach millions of children around the world. The tide had turned.

  8. 1988 →
    A health worker administering oral polio drops to a child during a global vaccination campaign

    Nearly beaten — nearly forgotten

    A global eradication effort pushed polio to the edge of extinction. Today it has all but vanished from daily life. But for those who survived, the story did not end — and as the world moved on, it began to forget.

Continue your visit

Room II — The Iron Lung

Privacy Policy