Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Smith (Jane S.) Collection on Jonas Salk
MSS 0810  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Biography
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Publication Rights
  • Digital Content
  • Restrictions
  • Related Materials

  • Descriptive Summary

    Languages: English
    Contributing Institution: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
    9500 Gilman Drive
    La Jolla 92093-0175
    Title: Jane S. Smith Collection on Jonas Salk
    Creator: Smith, Jane S.
    Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0810
    Physical Description: 2 Linear feet (2 archives boxes, 4 card file boxes, and 1 oversize folder)
    Physical Description: .822 GB of digital files
    Date (inclusive): 1950-1993
    Abstract: Author and historian Jane S. Smith's materials relating to Jonas Salk and the National Foundation/March of Dimes, collected while researching her book Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine (1990). The collection includes ephemera, interview transcripts, and sound recordings.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    Author and historian Jane S. Smith's materials relating to Jonas Salk and the National Foundation/March of Dimes, collected while researching her book Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine (1990). The collection includes a small amount of March of Dimes and public health ephemera promoting polio prevention and the 1955 vaccine. The bulk of the collection consists of notes, transcripts and original recordings from Smith's interviews with Jonas Salk, members of the Salk family, and people familiar with the story of the 1955 vaccine development. It also includes recordings from an interview conducted in 1964 with Jonas Salk, possibly by Richard Carter (the interviewer is unidentified in the recordings).
    Arranged in three series: 1) PAPERS, 2) INTERVIEWS - TRANSCRIPTS AND NOTES, and 3) INTERVIEWS - SOUND RECORDINGS.

    Biography

    Jane S. Smith writes about the intersection of science, natural history, and popular culture. Her books have covered topics from the pioneering career of tastemaker Elsie de Wolfe to the development of the first polio vaccine, the long history of domesticated chickens, and the influential career of plant inventor Luther Burbank. (From Smith's website, cited in March 2019: http://www.janessmith.com/works.htm)

    Preferred Citation

    Jane S. Smith Collection on Jonas Salk. MSS 810. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

    Acquisition Information

    Acquired 2018

    Publication Rights

    Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.

    Digital Content

    Selected sound recordings from the collection have digital use copies available upon request, which were provided by the donor (Ms. Smith had them created in 2003 by the Northwestern University Library, Digital Media Services). Two interview recordings exist only in digital format.

    Restrictions

    Original sound recording formats are restricted. Users may inquire about use copies prior to their visit.

    Related Materials

    Jonas Salk Papers. MSS 1. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Poliomyelitis -- United States -- History -- Sources
    Poliomyelitis -- Vaccination -- History -- Sources
    Poliomyelitis vaccine -- History -- Sources
    Salk, Jonas, 1914-1995
    National Foundation