Vaccinating the Baby
Harper's Weekly
Vaccination
Periodicals
This illustration from a popular New York periodical encourages parents to vaccinate their children against smallpox
Harper's Weekly
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English
still image
Snuffbox
Vaccination
Snuffboxes
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
Jenner, Edward, 1749-1823
Silver (metal)
This silver snuffbox was a gift from Edward Jenner to Benjamin Waterhouse and contained quills impregnated with cowpox vaccine matter for use in America. In a letter dated November 16, 1802, Waterhouse said,<em>"Dr. Jenner has been to me what the sun is to the moon... Dr. Jenner has just sent me a present I highly prize, a silver box inlaid with gold of exquisite taste and workmanship, bearing the inscription, 'Edward Jenner to Benjamin Waterhouse.' But Mr. [John] Ring annexed the superscription in rather a hyperbolic style, 'From the Jenner of the Old World to the Jenner of the New World.'"</em>
Unknown
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English
physical object
DigID0002452
Vaccine Inoculation
Vaccination
Watercolors (paintings)
This unusual illustration of a child's arm with the distinctive mark of inoculation was inserted in Benjamin Waterhouse's own copy of <em>The Origin of the Vaccine Inoculation</em> (London : printed by D. N. Shury, 1801). <em>The Origin</em> was Edward Jenner's attempt to prove his claim to the priority of cowpox inoculation. He concludes the treatise with the words <em>"An hundred thousand persons, upon the smallest computation, have been inoculated in these realms. The numbers who have partaken of its benefits throughout Europe and other parts of the Globe are incalculable: and it now becomes too manifest to admit of controversy, that the annihilation of the Small Pox, the most dreadful scourge of the human species, must be the final result of this practice."</em>
Unknown
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English
still image
DigID0002450
Tea Service
Vaccination
Tea services
Porcelain (material)
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
Unknown
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physical object
DigID0002455
B. Waterhouse, M.D.
Vaccination
Portraits
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
Unknown
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still image
DigID0002460
Lock of Edward Jenner's hair
Vaccination
Jenner, Edward, 1749-1823
Human hair
Unknown
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image
physical object
DigID0002456
Edward Jenner medal
Loos, Friedrich Wilhelm (artist)
Vaccination
Medals
Bronze (metal)
Jenner, Edward, 1749-1823
A number of medals were struck to commemorate Edward Jenner's research and the centennial of the first vaccinations. While most depict the physician himself, the bronze example here shows an angel draping a garland around the neck of a cow surrounded by dancing children. The medal was crafted by Friedrich Wilhelm Loos.
Loos, Friedrich Wilhelm
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English
physical object
Hand of Sarah Nelmes
Skelton, William, 1763-1848
Vaccination
Vaccinia
Scientific illustrations (images)
This colored plate appears in the first edition of Edward Jenner's <em>An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of Variolæ Vaccinæ</em> and depicts the cowpox pustules on the hand of dairymaid Sarah Nelmes. Cowpox matter from these pustules was used to vaccinate the boy James Phipps in 1796.
Skelton, William, 1763-1848
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still image
DigID0002465
Dr. Jenner, the Discoverer of Cow Pox Inoculation
Vaccination
Jenner, Edward, 1749-1823
Portraits
Unknown
J. Robins
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English
still image
DigID0002464
The Cow-Pock, or, the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation!
Gillray, James, 1756-1815 (artist)
Vaccination
Jenner, Edward, 1749-1823
Satires (document genre)
Engravings (prints)
As the first professional caricaturist in England, James Gillray is usually remembered for his political and royal satires, but this engraving, poking fun at the work of Edward Jenner, shows the dire consequences of injecting cowpox matter into humans.
Gillray, James, 1756-1815
H. Humphrey
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English
still image
DigID0002463
Benjamin Waterhouse
Peale, Rembrandt, 1778-1860 (artist)
Vaccination
Portraits
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
This portrait of Waterhouse at the age of 79, attributed to American artist Rembrandt Peale, was on display at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876.
Peale, Rembrandt, 1778-1860
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still image
DigID0002449
A Collection of Papers Relative to the Transactions of the Town of Milton
Milton (Mass.)
Vaccination
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
The Selectmen of Milton, Massachusetts, assembled, published, and distributed this assortment of documents to prove the efficacy of vaccination against smallpox and encourage towns throughout the state to establish vaccination programs. Through the work of physicians Amos Holbrook and John Mark Gourgas, over 300 of Milton’s citizens—more than one-quarter of the population—were vaccinated, and matter was supplied to the neighboring towns of Dorchester, Canton, Stoughton, and Sharon.
<p>Benjamin Waterhouse contributed this statement on his work to the publication.</p>
Milton (Mass.)
J. Belcher
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text
English
text
DigID0002474
Letter from Benjamin Waterhouse to John Mellen and the Selectmen of the Town of Cambridge
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846 (author)
Vaccination
Cambridge (Mass.). Selectmen
Correspondence
This letter from Waterhouse proposes that Cambridge initiate a general vaccination program for all its citizens—<em>“adopting that easy substitute afforded them by Divine Goodness”</em>—and vaccinate the poor without charge.
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
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text
English
text
DigID0002472
DigID0002473
A Prospect of Exterminating the Small Pox, Part II
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
Vaccination
Pamphlets
In this companion pamphlet to his original publication just two years earlier, Waterhouse recounts the popularity of smallpox inoculation following his experiments, as well as the consequent appearance of spurious cowpox matter which caused a smallpox outbreak in Marblehead.
<p>In the footnote on page 16, Waterhouse describes the procedure he has developed for vaccination.</p>
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
Cambridge University Press
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text
English
text
DigID0002475
Letter from Benjamin Waterhouse to Edward Everett
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846 (author)
Vaccination
Everett, Edward, 1794-1865
Correspondence
Letter books
In the 1820s, years after his initial vaccination experiments, Benjamin Waterhouse remained closely involved with the subject. He used this letterbook to keep copies of correspondence with President John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, and other influential political figures on the advisability of the government appointing a national director of vaccination programs.
<p>In this letter, addressed to Massachusetts Congressman Edward Everett (1794-1865), Waterhouse outlines his experience with vaccination and concludes with this: <em>"Whereas you have a very expensive dept. for destroying human life, would it not be for the honour of the New World to have a little national establishment for the preservation of human life; more especially as the devouring monster, small pox, has a lready destroyed many millions (some say 40) more lives than there are people now on the face of the earth."</em></p>
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
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text
English
text
DigID0002459
Rules to Be Attended to During the Vaccination
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
Vaccination
Broadsheet (format)
Rules (instructions)
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
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English
text
DigID0002462
Letter from Benjamin Waterhouse to Lyman Spalding
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846 (author)
Vaccination
Spalding, Lyman, 1775-1821
Correspondence
Benjamin Waterhouse's position as a supplier of vaccine matter to American physicians is attested in this letter to a colleague, Lyman Spalding (1775-1821). Note that the letter also refers to Jenner's gift to Waterhouse of the silver snuffbox containing quills laden with cowpox vaccine.
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
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English
text
DigID0002458
Letter from Benjamin Waterhouse to Edward Jenner
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846 (author)
Vaccination
Jenner, Edward, 1749-1823
Correspondence
In this letter, Waterhouse describes for Jenner the difficulties he has encountered with inoculations of spurious matter and asks for some additional vaccine, specifying that the matter be sent on soaked threads pressed between glass and sealed with wax.
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
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English
text
DigID0002466
On the Difficulty of Preserving the Vaccine Virus on Thread or Glass
in Very Hot Weather
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
Vaccination
Manuscripts (document genre)
Charts (graphic documents)
Some of the problems associated with the early smallpox vaccination work are highlighted in this manuscript of Benjamin Waterhouse. Without an adequate way to preserve the active virus at high temperatures, Waterhouse often found its efficacy compromised. During June and July, 1801, he charted the temperature and humidity in Cambridge to measure its effect on his vaccine matter and then devised these procedures to keep the matter cool and allow samples to be sent to his colleagues.
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
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text
English
text
DigID0002461
A Prospect of Exterminating the Small-Pox
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
Vaccination
Title pages
Pamphlets
Benjamin Waterhouse's first pamphlet on the subject of his inoculation work appeared in September, 1800, just a few weeks after the vaccination of the Waterhouse children and servants in the summer. The pamphlet describes his early promotion of Jenner's work and a short appendix advertises Waterhouse's readiness to vaccinate others, based on the success of the tests on his household.
<p>This copy is inscribed to Dr. John Jeffries from Benjamin Waterhouse.</p>
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
William Hilliard
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text
English
text
DigID0002457
Waterhouse Family Bible
Vaccination
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846
Bible records
Smallpox
The flyleaves and end papers of Bibles were often used to record the births, deaths, and marriages of family members. But this Bible, belonging to the Waterhouse family, was used to record Benjamin Waterhouse's cowpox inoculations of his children, Daniel, Benjamin, Mary, and Elizabeth, and two servants, Samuel Carter and Kesiah Flag, during the summer of 1800, and their subsequent exposures to smallpox by Dr. William Aspinwall. According to Waterhouse, all were again exposed to smallpox seven years later and suffered no ill effects <em>"which was done to convince the faithless, and silence the mischievous."</em>
Unknown
T. Wright and W. Gill
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text
English
text
DigID0002451
Analytical review of Jenner's "An Inquiry..."
Vaccination
Reviews (document genre)
Articles
Jenner, Edward, 1749-1823
Vaccinia
This anonymous article, appearing in December 1798, is the first American publication to discuss the work of Edward Jenner.
Anonymous
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English
text
DigID0002454
An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolæ Vaccinæ
Jenner, Edward, 1749-1823
Vaccination
Title pages
Vaccinia
Smallpox
The first edition of Edward Jenner's publication contains his evidence that inoculation with cowpox vaccine matter could be a preventive against smallpox. Pages 32-35 concern Case XVII, an eight-year-old named James Phipps, who was inoculated with cowpox matter taken from Sarah Nelmes, a dairymaid, on May 14, 1796. Subsequent inoculation with smallpox demonstrated the boy's immunity to the disease. The case was Jenner's first vaccination of a human patient.
<p>The title-page of this copy of <em>An Inquiry</em> bears a presentation inscription by Edward Jenner to the Reverend John Clinch.</p>
Jenner, Edward, 1749-1823
Sampson Low
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text
English
text
DigID0002453