For Katherine Phillips, a visit to the Jonas Salk Legacy Exhibit at the University of Pittsburgh had personal resonance. Phillips contracted polio when she was 2, and three of her siblings had it, too. One of them, a sister, didn’t survive. That experience remains profound for Phillips, and touring the exhibit this summer stirred memories of what her family endured.

Located in the School of Public Health building along De Soto Street, the exhibit showcases items donated and shipped from storage in La Jolla, California, by the family of Jonas Salk, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine virologist who introduced the killed-poliovirus vaccine to the world about 70 years ago.

The free exhibition, which opened to the public April 28, 2023, offers a glimpse of things large and small from that time in history. Visitors will find an iron lung, the long mechanical breathing apparatus that encapsulated a patient from the neck down, and centrifuges, large metal drums that spun to separate poliovirus particles from the cells in which they were grown. Also on display are awards given to Salk, a vaccination consent form for parents to sign for their children and photos of lab work and the public introduction of the vaccine.

“Seeing those things in real life”—Phillips says of the equipment on display and then pauses. “I wasn’t quite prepared for how I felt. Those are things I read about and heard about but had never seen.” The iron lung struck her: Though she didn’t witness it in action herself, her siblings were treated in iron lungs. The virus had left them unable to breathe on their own.

Phillips, 73, and her three siblings were among tens of thousands of Americans, mostly children of her generation, who had polio. The virus can cause breathing problems and paralysis, among other debilitating conditions, and it can kill. Although the poliovirus hasn’t been eradicated globally, vaccines have prevented an untold number of infections. The exhibit commemorates that as it celebrates those events growing out of the University.

The lasting physical reminder of Phillips’ battle with polio is in her vision; she has what’s known as convergence insufficiency in her right eye. Her two siblings endured greater physical limitations, and the memory of losing a sister weighed heavily on them through the years.

Phillips, a Pitt-educated nurse (MSN ’89) who worked in hematology, marvels at how the displays brought to life the memories of living through a viral outbreak that “hung in the clouds.”

“I look upon ourselves as partners”

W. Paul Duprex, PhD director of Pitt’s Center for Vaccine Research and a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, suggests that Salk might be uncomfortable with his enduring rockstar status. He references a Salk quote to illustrate his point—one displayed on a wall at the exhibit: “I look upon ourselves as partners in all of this, and that each of us contributes and does what he can do best.”

“It’s good to be inspired by individuals,” says Duprex. “But alongside every single name, there are multiple names. You can’t say Salk without saying [Albert Bruce] Sabin,” who developed the oral polio vaccine. “And whenever you say Sabin, you must say [Maurice] Hilleman,” who developed many vaccines, including those for measles and hepatitis A and B.

Duprex, who proudly holds the Jonas Salk Chair for Vaccine Research, clarifies that he’s not diminishing Salk’s contribution to medicine, but contextualizing how scientists build on the body of knowledge their peers and predecessors create.

Pitt’s Julius Youngner, a renowned virologist, as well as Byron L. Bennett, L. James Lewis and others on the Salk team were critical to the success of the vaccine—as were the millions who rolled up their sleeves to test the vaccine’s effectiveness.

When visiting the exhibit, Duprex found himself most interested in the artifacts on display, like the iron lung. While those technologies seem outdated now, Duprex notes that in 75 years or so, apparatus used today will seem outdated. “Even though we think we have all these amazing pieces of equipment, they become archaic very quickly,” he says. Seeing the historical technologies and approaches in the exhibit, he says, can “help us all appreciate the past but understand where we are in the present.”

Read more from the Fall 2023 issue.