1963 - Letter from Cyrus R. Vance, Secretary of the Army, to Dr. Albert Sabin, confirming his appointment to the AFEB

The past couple of days I have been looking at administrative documents from Dr. Sabin’s time as a member of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board (AFEB) during the 1960’s, to make sure there are no classified documents in this part of the collection. I thought I would share some things that I have encountered.

In 1963, Dr. Sabin was appointed a member of the AFEB based on a joint nomination by the Surgeons General of the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force for a four year term (see letter to the right). As a member of the AFEB, Dr. Sabin was required to vote on contracts and commission appointments, as well as other issues applicable to military medicine. The memos and letters included in this part of the collection give insight into the issues addressed by the AFEB. They also provide researchers with information about Dr. Sabin’s opinions about these issues, through his own letters to other AFEB members and the notes he scribbled on the various memos he received. Topics included disease prevention and vaccination of troops. Here is just one example of Dr. Sabin’s involvement as a member of the AFEB.
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Yesterday, my colleague Laura Laugle and I were discussing how to arrange archival collections, which reminded me of a letter (seen below) that I recently came across during the redaction process. I wanted to share this letter since I thought other archivists reading the blog would also appreciate it.

First page of letter from Dr. Sabin to Dr. Feldman, April 28, 1952

First, a little bit of explanation – one important task that archivists perform when they are processing a collection is referred to as “arrangement.” According to A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology by Richard Pearce-Moses, arrangement is “the process of organizing materials with respect to their provenance and original order, to protect their context and to achieve physical or intellectual control over the materials.”[1] I realize that definition contains a lot of archival jargon, such as “provenance” and “original order.” Provenance, according to the same glossary, essentially refers to the person or organization that created the collection of materials.[2] Original order is the “organization and sequence of records established by the creator of the records,” which hopefully provides perspective into how the record creator used the materials.[3] Continue reading →

Letter from Dr. Sabin to Dr. Hogan, December 1948

Recently, I have been working with letters in the Sabin collection about toxoplasmosis, a disease that Dr. Sabin and several of his colleagues researched for quite some time. Some of this correspondence contains health information, so I have been reading letters quite closely to make sure we protect the privacy of those mentioned.

Here is some background information: Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii and generally has few symptoms for those with healthy immune systems. However, those who are pregnant or have compromised immune systems are at risk for serious health problems if they are infected with Toxoplasma.[1] Many of the letters in the collection discuss congenital toxoplasmosis, which is when an unborn baby is infected with the parasite during the pregnancy, including labor and delivery. This infection can cause premature birth, as well as hearing loss, low birth weight, vision problems, seizures, and mental retardation. As you can imagine, mothers whose children were born with these types of symptoms were concerned for the health of the child, as well as concerned for their future children. Continue reading →

Dr. Albert B. Sabin was one of six honorees named a 2012 "Great Ohioan."

This press release originally appeared on the UC Health News website on Thursday, April 19, 2012.

By: Richard Puff

CINCINNATI—Albert Sabin, MD, former distinguished service professor of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine and researcher at Children’s Hospital (today known as Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center), was named as a Great Ohioan for his pioneering work in developing the oral, live polio vaccine that helped eliminate polio from most countries. Continue reading →

Program from the 1983 International Symposium on Poliomyelitis Control, where Dr. Racaniello met Dr. Sabin for the first time.

The Sabin digitization project has provided me with opportunities to connect with different people about Dr. Sabin and his collection. Last week, I had the chance to speak with Dr. Vincent Racaniello, whom I wrote about in a blog post called “An Influential Man” in February 2012. Dr. Racaniello has been studying viruses for over 30 years and is currently a Professor of Microbiology at Columbia University Medical Center. I thought I would share a little bit from the interview with you, especially since it was really interesting to talk to someone who has been studying virology (particularly polio) for such a long time and seems very passionate about teaching people about the subject. Continue reading →

Recently, I wrote a blog post about an article that appeared in a recent issue of Scientific American about Drs. Sabin and Chumakov and their cooperation when testing the oral polio vaccine during the Cold War. Through the author of the article Mr. William Swanson, I was connected with Dr. Konstantin Chumakov, son of Dr. Mikhail P. Chumakov. Yesterday, I had the chance to speak with him about his father and Dr. Sabin. I wanted to share a bit about our conversation, as well as some materials in our collection.

Photograph of Dr. Sabin with the Chumakov family in Moscow, 1961

For those of you that don’t know, Dr. Sabin kept everything. So it was not a surprise to me that we have a folder in the “Correspondence” series of the Sabin collection that contains letters to and from Dr. Konstantin Chumakov. Most of these letters are about an article that Dr. Chumakov and his colleagues wrote for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which Dr. Sabin sponsored. However, there is a photograph (seen to the left) which is labeled “Moscow, 1961.” According to the photograph, “Kostya” (Dr. Konstantin Chumakov) is the first child from the left, standing in front of his father. Continue reading →

At the Midwest Archives Conference student poster session

On Saturday, April 21, I had the honor of presenting a poster at the Midwest Archives Conference student poster session called, “The Albert B. Sabin Digitization Project: Balancing Restrictions and Privacy with Access.” This was an exciting opportunity for me to share Dr. Sabin’s collection with fellow archivists and discuss what we are doing here at the Winkler Center to make his materials accessible to researchers worldwide. Continue reading →

Telegram from Dr. Chumakov to Dr. Sabin, September 1958

The April 2012 issue of Scientific American Magazine features an article about Dr. Albert B. Sabin and Dr. Mikhail P. Chumakov called “Birth of a Cold War Vaccine” by William Swanson. Mr. Swanson conducted research in the Sabin Archives for the special report on polio. Regarding the “surprising” alliance of these scientists, Mr. Swanson wrote, “Their joint venture would have outraged fanatics on both sides of the iron curtain if those fanatics had been aware of it. Yet the collaboration—fleshed out in archival materials recently made available at the University of Cincinnati and by several contemporaneous sources—led to one of the greatest medical achievements of the 20th century and saved countless lives around the world” (p. 66). Continue reading →

By Megan Ryan, Sabin Project Student Assistant

A scientist cannot rest while knowledge which might reduce suffering rests on the shelf.
-Albert B. Sabin [1]

Albert B. Sabin Commemorative Stamp

On March 8, 2006, Dr. Albert B. Sabin was recognized for his work in the elimination of polio by the United States Postal Service. An 87-cent stamp was created to honor the virologist “who developed the ‘sugar-cube’ vaccine that’s credited with wiping out polio in much of the world.”[2] The stamp, part of the Distinguished Americans series, was issued to recognized his various accolades and research accomplishments. The USA Philatelic Catalog explained that Dr. Sabin’s “successful efforts to develop a polio vaccine made him one of the most esteemed scientists in the world. For his dedication to fighting polio and other infectious diseases, he received numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science (1970) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1986).”[3] Continue reading →