Iron Lung Transport and Polio Emergency Care: Press Photographs of Respirator Patients, 1937-1951

Polio Iron Lung Archive

Photograph

Iron lung transport press archive documenting the movement of respirator-dependent polio patients through rail terminals, ships, ramps, aircraft, hospitals, and Coast Guard facilities during the years before the Salk vaccine changed American polio care in 1955. The iron lung, developed in 1928 by Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw, kept patients breathing when polio paralyzed the muscles needed for respiration. Fred B. Snite Jr. appears in several views as the nationally followed Chicago patient who contracted polio in China in 1936 and returned to the United States after a highly publicized 9,300-mile medical journey. The group is strongest as a record of medical transport itself: nurses in masks, uniformed officers, attendants, ramps, crowds, and captioned press slips show how survival could depend on coordinated movement as much as bedside treatment.

Photo archive of 5 large silver gelatin press photographs, approx 8 x 10 inches, Chicago, Seattle, Port Angeles, and related transport locations, 1937-1951. Snite’s respirator is loaded at a Chicago railroad terminal with his head visible through the front window while men adjust the wheeled carriage; another scene places the iron lung at a ship or dockside ramp, surrounded by masked nurses, uniformed officers, and hospital attendants. A Chicago caption dated February 8, 1939 reads “Iron Lung Kid and Bride Entrain for South,” identifying Snite and his bride leaving for Miami, Florida, after their winter vacation. Another verso caption dated June 22, 1937 describes his return to Chicago after transport from China, where he had been stricken. A January 14, 1951 Coast Guard caption identifies an iron lung flown from Seattle to Port Angeles to aid Eldon Tetum, a 36-year-old logger stricken with polio.

Polio epidemics made the iron lung one of the most visible medical machines of the mid-twentieth century, especially before vaccination reduced annual cases after 1955. These scenes connect celebrity medical news to emergency public health logistics, showing how mechanical respiration required attendants, vehicles, terminals, aircraft, and institutional coordination outside the hospital room. Press stamps, pasted captions, adhesive staining, and surface marks visible on versos; images remain strong and readable. Overall in good condition.

Item #23453

Price: $580.00