Your Child May Need an Iron Lung Some Day ... Give Now to the Iron Lung Fund

21 x 13 inches. Broadside. Stiff white cardstock printed in yellow and black, with halftone illustrations. Heavy bump to top edge, causing approx. 3" closed tear; bumping to upper corner; wear and rubbing to edges and corners; foxing. Good.

Fundraising broadside for an unnamed community seeking to raise funds to purchase an iron lung -- presumably the Drinker-Collins Duplex Respirator shown here. Iron lungs are negative pressure respiratory machines used when poliomyelitis and other neuromuscular diseases cause the patient's lungs to become paralyzed.

"Iron Lung Fund" fund drives were regular occurrences in the U.S. during the 1930s and 1940s, and often successfully mobilized communities to raise money to ensure that their local hospitals were adequately outfitted with the machines. A January 15, 1945 newspaper advertisement for a Glens Falls, New York, iron lung fund drive, specifically to purchase the Drinker-Collins Duplex Respirator, pleads, "Every year hundreds of children are stricken suddenly with infantile paralysis. In the past those whose limbs were paralyzed survived, but those who lost the use of their breathing muscles stopped breathing and died in agony. The IRON LUNG saves lives. We need one in Glens Falls."

Not located in OCLC.