Dr. Jonas Salk polio vaccine exhibit opens at University of Pittsburgh

The polio vaccine was created by Dr. Jonas Salk at a University of Pittsburgh laboratory about 70 years ago, and Pitt is honoring that legacy by opening a public exhibit of Salk’s personal equipment to remind visitors and students of the importance of vaccines to public health.

The exhibit spans two floors in the commons area of the Pitt School of Public Health building. It includes an iron lung to remind visitors of polio treatment before the vaccine was created, a centrifuge that Salk used and interpretative signs about Salk and the creation of the polio vaccine.

Peter Salk, a Pitt professor and Jonas’ oldest son, said the exhibit should serve as a reminder of how important it is not just to develop scientific breakthroughs but to effectively spread them to the public in the name of global health.

“This shows the devotion to humanity my father had was unmatched,” Salk said. “Caring for the future was always something he was focused on.”

Salk and his family provided most of the material for the exhibit, which includes his father’s awards and items such as the beakers he used in his experiments. It even includes his desk, which traveled from his Pittsburgh office to California when the family moved.

Peter Salk was among the first humans in the world to test a polio vaccine in 1953. A photo in the exhibit shows him as a 9-year-old receiving the shot from his father.

Salk and former Pitt Public Health Dean Donald Burke first discussed bringing an exhibit on Salk’s legacy more than a decade ago.

Burke said it was important to unveil the exhibit now because there has been a rise in anti-vaccine sentiment. He said the exhibit aims to serve as a reminder of how life-changing the polio vaccine was.

“I was a child when Jonas Salk and his team here at Pitt developed the polio vaccine,” Burke said. “I clearly recall the celebration when we were finally free from the fear of polio.”

After a mass immunization campaign with the Salk vaccine, the number of polio cases in the U.S. fell from 35,000 in 1953 to 5,600 in 1957. By 1961, fewer than 200 polio cases were recorded in the U.S.

“It wasn’t just about the science,” Burke said. “It was about a public health collaboration of everyone working together to inform people about the vaccine and distribute it.”

Pitt Public Health Dean Maureen Lichtveld thanked the Salk family for their contributions to the exhibit, which she said is the cornerstone of the school’s 75th anniversary celebration this year.

“There is no other school that can claim the vaccine that changed so many people’s lives,” Lichtveld said.

The Salk exhibit is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays in the lobby and commons area of the Pitt School of Public Health, 130 De Soto St. in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood.