The Iron Lung (episode 104)

In 1928, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital demonstrated a groundbreaking medical advancement – the iron lung. Prior to the arrival of the polio vaccination in 1955, the deadly disease was the most feared illness in America. With this invention by two Harvard faculty members, the diaphragm paralysis that accompanied polio no longer had to be a death sentence.


The Iron Lung

Featured Historic Site

Founded in 1660, the Granary Burying Ground is the third oldest burying ground in Boston. The need for the site arose because the land set aside for the city’s first cemetery, King’s Chapel Burying Ground, was insufficient to meet the city’s growing population.  At the time, Puritan churches did not believe in religious icons or imagery, so the people of Boston used tombstones as an outlet for artistic expression of their beliefs about the afterlife. One of the most popular motifs was the “Soul Effigy,” a skull or “death’s head” with a wing on each side that was a representation of the soul flying to heaven after death.  These death’s head stones are a perfect backdrop for the Halloween season.

Speaking of Halloween, the scariest occurrence in the history of the Granary Burying Ground occurred in 2009. That January, a previously unknown crypt was discovered when a visitor on a self-guided tour through the cemetery fell through the ground into what appeared to be a stairway leading to a crypt. The stairway had been covered with a piece of slate which eventually gave way due to advanced age. The crypt is reported to be 8 by 12 feet and is structurally intact. It is possibly the resting place of Jonathan Armitage, a Boston selectman from 1732 to 1733.

If you visit the cemetery, you will find the final resting places of many notable Bostonians, including Paul Revere, the five victims of the Boston Massacre, and three signers of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Robert Treat Paine.

Upcoming Event

If you listened to our interview with Steven Ujifusa a couple of months back, you’re already aware of Boston’s prominent role in the China trade in the 19th century.  On November 7, Holy Cross associate professor of history Gwenn Miller will be giving a deeper profile of one of the important players in that trade.

In July of 1803, John Perkins Cushing, an orphaned relation of some of the most prominent families in Boston, set sail for the Canton at the age of sixteen. The emerging literature on the Early American China trade often mentions Cushing as an aside, sometimes refers in passing to his importance among the foreign residents of Canton. This project explores how he came to be in that position of importance and casts Boston’s opium exchange at the center of the trade.

The event will be held at the Massachusetts Historical Society at 12pm.  There’s no charge to attend.  Bring a brown bag lunch to enjoy during the talk.

More Events

While we’re at it, two of our past podcast guests also have events coming up on the same day.  They’re both speaking on November 7 at 6pm.  Lori Lyn Price, who joined us to talk about the 1918 flu epidemic, will be giving a talk at Boston Public Library’s Commonwealth salon.  And Christian Di Spigna, who we interviewed about Joseph Warren just last week, will be giving a talk at the Massachusetts Historical Society.