My Scrapbook of My Illness with Polio, 1946–1951

Polio, an infectious disease caused by a virus, became epidemic in the United States in the early to mid-20th century. Recounted in the form of a journal, this story about Edna Black Hindson does a wonderful job making the story of polio come alive. Edna caught polio in 1946, before the height of the epidemic, and the introduction of the vaccine —and well after Franklin Delano Roosevelt turned Warm Springs into the only place focused only on treating poliomyelitis. Thus, her story shows how Americans in the 1940s understood and treated polio, how they were able to use the facilities at Warm Springs and the work it took to help children recover muscle control and the ability to move their limbs that had originally been paralyzed.