Anti-vaccine propaganda

One hundred years ago today … anti-vaccine propaganda circulated in the media. The Herald carried this advertisement for “Vaccines Killed My Two Sisters,” a article in the current issue of Physical Culture.

Physical Culture’s offices were at 113-119 West 40th Street. The monthly magazine was part of a media conglomerate owned by Bernarr Macfadden, who used his subscription list to campaign against compulsory smallpox vaccination (Colgrove 58).

Note: we covered another prominent NYC anti-vaxxer, Charles Higgins, in our post about October 8, 1920.

“Vaccines Killed My Two Sisters” is credited to “Dr. G.W. Desbrow,” but Macfadden eventually acknowledged that it was not written by a doctor (Colgrove 58). 

The article appeared accompanied by an illustration by Johnny Gruelle, famous as the creator of the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy toys, himself an anti-vaxxer (Hall 90). Gruelle submitted his drawing with a note denouncing vaccination as “malpractice.”

References/ Further reading

Colgrove, James. State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America. Berkeley, U of California Press, 2006.

Hall, Patricia. Johnny Gruelle, Creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy. Pelican Publishing, 1993.

– Jonathan Goldman, May 5, 2021

TAGS: medicine, vaccination, disease, contagion, quackery