Many readers from the USA who were alive in the 1950s will well remember the
famous March of Dimes posters seen at that time.
In 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
established the National Foundation for Infantile
Paralysis - a unique partnership of scientists and
volunteers - to conquer polio. The first fund raising effort asked the USA public to
send dime coins to the President at the White
House. The effort was called the March of Dimes.
This later became part of the official name of the
foundation.
In 1941 the March of Dimes provided the first iron
lung to assist polio victims. In 1949 it selected Dr. Jonas Salk to lead research
on classifying polio viruses. March of Dimes ran field trials of Salk vaccine with
1,830,000 schoolchildren participating in 1954. and
in 1955 the Salk vaccine was declared "safe,
effective and potent." Later in the 1950s, with polio beaten, the March of
Dimes Foundation moved into work on preventing
birth defects, work which continues to this day. Even today they have the power to haunt us and awaken some of the fear that
people felt in the 1950s when polio, "the crippler", was mentioned. Remember, in the early
1950s it was a major cause for concern in many countries as no vaccine had yet been
found and polio had reached epidemic levels. Many thousands of people, especially young
children, were either paralysed or killed by polio. Some kids ended up in iron lungs for
years. The images were usually of healthy looking and appealing
children but who wore leg-braces because of polio. The idea was
to make parents think, "that could be my little child!" and so get
them to make contributions to the fund raising effort. It was a
very successful ploy resulting in the conquering of polio in the USA by the
end of the 1950s. Sadly polio is still killing and
maiming children in some third world countries to this day nearly
sixty years since the first polio vaccine was created.
The March of Dimes website is worth a visit. They still need support today to continue their
good work on birth defects prevention. The March of Dimes Foundation is looking for old booklets,
letters, photos, films or memorabilia, illustrating their
achievements. Please contact them at the address shown if you can help.
The Archives contact address is: archives@modimes.org
March of Dimes National Office
1275 Mamaroneck Avenue
White Plains
NY 10605
Phone: (in the USA) 888-MODIMES
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