Infantile paralysis, better known as polio, was one of the most feared scourges in the first half of the 20th century. In the Boston area, the Harvard Infantile Paralysis Commission turned to Children's both for help in caring for children who had contracted polio and in an effort to find a cure. It was within this context that Philip Drinker of the Harvard School of Public Health developed the iron lung in 1928.

Photo: Children's Hospital Boston Archives.