[Scrapbook of anti-vaccination clippings]
Collection
Identifier: MSS 477
Scope and Contents
This scrapbook contains clippings of articles, reports, letters to the editor, etc. related to and expressing opposition to vaccination, especially compulsory vaccination. Many reports are from Muncie, Terre Haute, and other parts of Indiana, but coverage also includes Brooklyn, Chicago, Milwaukee, and parts of England.
The clippings focus on the arguments against vaccination, including letters to the editor and responses to letters signed by “Anti-Vaccination” or “Anti;” court cases regarding compulsory vaccination for school children, including Frank D. Blue’s case against Fannie M. Beach and Orville E. Conner for refusing to admit his son, Kleo Blue to school because he was unvaccinated; and reprinted papers and speeches by anti-vaccinationists such as Dr. H. Hitchcock, Dr. Robert A. Gunn, and M. R. Leverson. Also included are clippings from the Terre Haute Anti-Vaccination League circular and discussions of claims made; clippings claiming vaccination as the cause for leprosy, insanity, or death; political cartoons, including the “Do Not Vaccinate!!” cartoon depicting vaccination as a snake; and a clipping with an argument against compulsory suffrage.
Readers should note that the penultimate page includes a description of racialized violence.
The clippings focus on the arguments against vaccination, including letters to the editor and responses to letters signed by “Anti-Vaccination” or “Anti;” court cases regarding compulsory vaccination for school children, including Frank D. Blue’s case against Fannie M. Beach and Orville E. Conner for refusing to admit his son, Kleo Blue to school because he was unvaccinated; and reprinted papers and speeches by anti-vaccinationists such as Dr. H. Hitchcock, Dr. Robert A. Gunn, and M. R. Leverson. Also included are clippings from the Terre Haute Anti-Vaccination League circular and discussions of claims made; clippings claiming vaccination as the cause for leprosy, insanity, or death; political cartoons, including the “Do Not Vaccinate!!” cartoon depicting vaccination as a snake; and a clipping with an argument against compulsory suffrage.
Readers should note that the penultimate page includes a description of racialized violence.
Dates
- 1887
- 1892-1897
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Biographical / Historical
In the late 1700s Edward Jenner observed that people previously infected with cowpox appeared to be immune to smallpox. He performed a series of experiments in which he would inoculate a person with cowpox, then later with smallpox. The subjects of these experiments showed a mild reaction to the cowpox and no reaction or disease to the later smallpox inoculation. Jenner called this “variolae vaccinae” (“pustules of the cow”) in the 1798 publication in which he described the experiments and the protection offered by vaccination.
Benjamin Waterhouse introduced Jenner’s smallpox vaccine to the United States in 1800. After conducting his own experiments, he published his results and convinced the Boston Board of Health to conduct a public trial, which was successful. Compulsory vaccination of schoolchildren began in Boston in 1827 and quickly spread to other states. By the late nineteenth century, requiring proof of vaccination as a condition of school attendance had spread across the country.
In this era, vaccination carried some risks, as the vaccine was not always carefully prepared or properly stored, and doctors did not always sterilize needles and arms. Additionally, adverse effects of vaccination could range from mild to severe.
The first Anti-Vaccination League of America arose in 1879. Though it included concerned parents amongst its membership, it was primarily led by physicians who had doubts about the safety of vaccines and concerns about compulsory vaccination.
In 1885 the Anti-Vaccination Society of America was founded in New York with a combination of physicians and lay leaders, though physicians continued to control the messaging from the Society. The division in the medical community over vaccination stems mostly from the division over the germ theory of disease – in the 1880s, many homeopaths opposed to vaccination still did not accept germ theory.
The national discourse opposing school vaccination was not solely about vaccine safety and efficacy, but about medical liberty. In the 1890s, Indiana anti-vaccinationists banded together to financially support Frank Blue in his lawsuit because they viewed it as an important test case. Ultimately the case was decided in favor of the defendants and Blue appealed it to the Indiana Supreme Court. After the Jacobson v. Massachusetts case further cemented compulsory vaccination, many anti-vaccination leaders objected to the rise of medical science because they subscribed to alternative methods of healing and wanted to run or patronize other health businesses free from regulation.
By 1905 there were laboratory tests to detect tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, pneumonia, diphtheria, gonorrhea, and syphilis. Scientific developments facilitated the production of new vaccines and antitoxins against rabies, typhoid, cholera, diphtheria, and tetanus. These medical successes not only reduced outbreaks of disease throughout the country; they also increased citizens’ confidence in medical science.
In 1906 the Anti-Vaccination League of Pennsylvania was founded, this time with few physicians among its leadership. This organization had a broader commitment to medical liberty and led a campaign against compulsory vaccination with a bill that passed in the Pennsylvania House and Senate but was vetoed by Governor Edwin Stuart. Membership dwindled following this disappointment.
The anti-vaccionationist political activism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries highlighted concerns regarding vaccine safety and overreach of health inspectors conducting school inspections. However, it also did great harm in undermining the public’s trust in vaccines and antitoxins capable of preventing some of the dangerous diseases of the time.
Some of the arguments that these organizations used persist today, including concerns about vaccine safety; a desire for freedom from government intervention and regulation in medicine, including the vaccination of children; and even a rejection of the germ theory of disease. Anti-vaccinationist sentiment continues in the twenty-first century despite progress in fighting some of the worst diseases in the world. The last natural outbreak of smallpox in the United States occurred in 1949, and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it globally eradicated in 1980.
In the United States, vaccination as a condition of school admission has stood as the nexus of the vaccination fight for more than 150 years. In the twenty-first century, vaccination rates in some areas of the country appear to be falling, and the issue of school vaccination requirements remains a contentious issue as parents deliberate whether to comply with school vaccination requirements and voters decide the fate of their states’ philosophical or religious exemptions.
Benjamin Waterhouse introduced Jenner’s smallpox vaccine to the United States in 1800. After conducting his own experiments, he published his results and convinced the Boston Board of Health to conduct a public trial, which was successful. Compulsory vaccination of schoolchildren began in Boston in 1827 and quickly spread to other states. By the late nineteenth century, requiring proof of vaccination as a condition of school attendance had spread across the country.
In this era, vaccination carried some risks, as the vaccine was not always carefully prepared or properly stored, and doctors did not always sterilize needles and arms. Additionally, adverse effects of vaccination could range from mild to severe.
The first Anti-Vaccination League of America arose in 1879. Though it included concerned parents amongst its membership, it was primarily led by physicians who had doubts about the safety of vaccines and concerns about compulsory vaccination.
In 1885 the Anti-Vaccination Society of America was founded in New York with a combination of physicians and lay leaders, though physicians continued to control the messaging from the Society. The division in the medical community over vaccination stems mostly from the division over the germ theory of disease – in the 1880s, many homeopaths opposed to vaccination still did not accept germ theory.
The national discourse opposing school vaccination was not solely about vaccine safety and efficacy, but about medical liberty. In the 1890s, Indiana anti-vaccinationists banded together to financially support Frank Blue in his lawsuit because they viewed it as an important test case. Ultimately the case was decided in favor of the defendants and Blue appealed it to the Indiana Supreme Court. After the Jacobson v. Massachusetts case further cemented compulsory vaccination, many anti-vaccination leaders objected to the rise of medical science because they subscribed to alternative methods of healing and wanted to run or patronize other health businesses free from regulation.
By 1905 there were laboratory tests to detect tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, pneumonia, diphtheria, gonorrhea, and syphilis. Scientific developments facilitated the production of new vaccines and antitoxins against rabies, typhoid, cholera, diphtheria, and tetanus. These medical successes not only reduced outbreaks of disease throughout the country; they also increased citizens’ confidence in medical science.
In 1906 the Anti-Vaccination League of Pennsylvania was founded, this time with few physicians among its leadership. This organization had a broader commitment to medical liberty and led a campaign against compulsory vaccination with a bill that passed in the Pennsylvania House and Senate but was vetoed by Governor Edwin Stuart. Membership dwindled following this disappointment.
The anti-vaccionationist political activism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries highlighted concerns regarding vaccine safety and overreach of health inspectors conducting school inspections. However, it also did great harm in undermining the public’s trust in vaccines and antitoxins capable of preventing some of the dangerous diseases of the time.
Some of the arguments that these organizations used persist today, including concerns about vaccine safety; a desire for freedom from government intervention and regulation in medicine, including the vaccination of children; and even a rejection of the germ theory of disease. Anti-vaccinationist sentiment continues in the twenty-first century despite progress in fighting some of the worst diseases in the world. The last natural outbreak of smallpox in the United States occurred in 1949, and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it globally eradicated in 1980.
In the United States, vaccination as a condition of school admission has stood as the nexus of the vaccination fight for more than 150 years. In the twenty-first century, vaccination rates in some areas of the country appear to be falling, and the issue of school vaccination requirements remains a contentious issue as parents deliberate whether to comply with school vaccination requirements and voters decide the fate of their states’ philosophical or religious exemptions.
Extent
0.16 Linear feet (1 bound volume)
Language of Materials
English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Mrs. R. N. Twining.
Bibliography
Tolley, Kim. “School Vaccination Wars: The Rise of Anti-Science in the American Anti-Vaccination Societies, 1879–1929.” History of Education Quarterly 59, no. 2 (2019): 161–94. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26846701.
“Vaccine Timeline.” History of Vaccines, historyofvaccines.org/history/vaccine-timeline/overview/. Accessed 28 May 2026.
“Vaccine Timeline.” History of Vaccines, historyofvaccines.org/history/vaccine-timeline/overview/. Accessed 28 May 2026.
- Title
- [Scrapbook of anti-vaccination clippings]
- Author
- Rayna Andrews
- Date
- 2026 May 27
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- Digitization of this collection was supported by a Federal Save America's Treasures grant administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Repository Details
Part of the Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Repository
Contact:
19 S. 22nd Street
Philadelphia PA 19103 United States
19 S. 22nd Street
Philadelphia PA 19103 United States
