Polio fundraising campaign, 1930s. From left to right are US medical journal editor Morris Fishbein (1889-1976), Mississippi State Board of Health officer Felix Joel Underwood (1882-1959), Anna Mantel Fishbein (wife of Morris Fishbein), and Keith Morgan, Chairman of the Committee for the Celebration of the President's Birthday. Fishbein was editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The poster refers to March of Dimes, the annual fundraising event for the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, a charity formed to raise money for research on infantile paralysis (polio). It was founded in 1938 by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (paralysed by polio). Polio, also known as poliomyelitis, is a childhood disease caused by a virus. Polio epidemics in the early 20th century left thousands paralysed. Vaccines were developed in the 1950s and 1960s. |