Charlissa Jean Finks vaccine photograph

Dated April 23, 1955, this photograph shows 7 year old Charlissa Jean Finks of Hilliard, Ohio, receiving her first polio vaccine, administered by Dr. Robert A. Evans. Polio, a virus that causes paralysis, especially in young children, was a major public health concern in the United States and globally from the early 1900s through the 1950s. In 1952, Jonas Salk at University of Pittsburgh developed the first effective polio vaccine, which was given to hundreds of thousands of children across the country