This Iron Lung is a visceral and awful reminder of the toll polio and other now-preventable diseases took on families and children in the time before vaccines mad this dread disease a thing of the past. It is on display at the George Washington Carver Museum of the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site in Tuskegee AL.
There is no cost to enter the site or the Carver Museum.
Two nearby signs reads as follows:
"THE IRON LUNG
The iron lung is a mechanical chamber that was used to help the victims whose respiratory muscles were paralyzed. It acted as a huge diaphragm, inflating and deflating the lungs mechanically. His movement simulated the human diaphragm, thus enabling the patient to breathe effectively. The portholes allowed nursing care to be performed without removing the patient from the apparatus. Patients stayed in the lung until sufficient recovery of the paralyzed muscles enabled the patients to breathe without mechanical support. The recovery could take as few as 2 months to as long as a few years. Some patients remained in the lung for the rest of their lives."
On a separate but related display:
"INFANTILE PARALYSIS UNIT
The unit, headed by Doctor John W. Chenault, was the first and only polio treatment center for Blacks in the United States.
Tuskegee Institute was the logical choice because all of the necessary support services were already available at the Institute, and could be easily adapted for long-term polio treatment, care, and therapy needed for the patients.
Patients were sometimes admitted to the treatment center for as long as 2 or 3 years, and often required special education, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and sometimes orthopedic surgery during their length of stay.
Vocational training was also provided through existing curriculum at the Institute.
Doctor John F. Hume, a graduate of Howard University medical school and the second black orthopedic surgeon in the country, joined the staff in 1951 and later succeeded Doctor Chenault as its director.
Carver research foundation was one of the laboratories used to provide HeLa cell cultures used as a medium to grow the virus in a laboratory, which later led to the discovery of the Salk vaccine. The Salk vaccine all but eliminated the dreaded disease from the face of the earth."
From the Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune: (
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"George Washington Carver Museum tells a tale of true genius
By Wayne Anderson
Posted Dec 23, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Dec 23, 2012 at 1:00 AM
Our goal in Tuskegee, Ala., was the George Washington Carver Museum, housed in the former Milbank Agricultural Building at the Tuskegee Institute. Carver is one of the people my wife and I discussed in a program for OSHER Lifelong Learning on geniuses who changed the 20th century.
Even though the town of Tuskegee was smaller than we expected, we still had a problem finding the Tuskegee Institute, which turned out to have a rather large campus. We were surprised to learn it has only 3,000 students. Most of the buildings seemed modern and up-to-date, but once there, we had no problem finding the old section with buildings the early students had helped construct, even making the bricks. The Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site is supported by the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Our museum tour started with a movie of Carver’s life, which focused on the hardships and barriers he faced in his early days. Born in Missouri to slaves just before the end of the Civil War, Carver -- a sickly baby -- his sister and mother were kidnapped. His owner and his wife could find only him and rescued him by trading a prize steed. They raised him as if he were their child. Carver spent his early years roaming the countryside alone learning about plants. His caretakers sent him away to primary school, and he spent much of his early life struggling to get an education.
Finally, he got into college in Iowa, where one of the teachers saw his potential as a scientist and helped him become the first black at Iowa State University, where he not only eventually got a graduate degree but was hired as the university’s first black professor. Booker T. Washington heard of him and invited him to Tuskegee in 1896. As no equipment was available for teaching or research, Carver had students dig materials out of trash heaps. Several of the displays show the primitive tools he had to work with.
Because growing cotton depletes the soil, Carver sought other crops to replace it. As a way to bring new ideas to farmers, he traveled in a modified truck to give demonstrations and show exhibits and films. This moving-schoolroom vehicle is one of the museum’s exhibits. He also wrote bulletins on farming, canning and making products such as paint out of what was usually thought to be waste material. I couldn’t resist buying the bulletin giving dozens of ways to use tomatoes.
Carver was a friend of Henry Ford, who was supportive of his work. Several displays focus on this relationship, including the cornerstone of a building signed by Ford and his wife. Interactive screens test visitors’ knowledge about Carver’s career and accomplishments, and other films feature testimonials from people who knew him. At the display of an iron lung, it was noted that black children did not receive the medical attention that whites received. Carver developed massage oil made of peanut oil with a few added ingredients. It was found to be very helpful, but later research showed it was the massage, not the oil, that brought improvement.
A wood bas-relief of Carver was striking. Some of the hundreds of products he created are on display, as well as mementos of his awards. Some emphasis is given of his often not cashing his paychecks and his feeling that no woman would want to be married to a man whose whole life was dedicated to work. We left the museum with the feeling that he truly was a man who changed history."