It started with the purchase of the 1895 tome Malaria Fevers of Baltimore at New York City’s Argosy Book Store in 2014.
By Jackie Powder • Photos by Chris Myers
It started with the purchase of the 1895 tome Malaria Fevers of Baltimore at New York City’s Argosy Book Store in 2014. Since then, Epidemiology professor and IVAC director William Moss, MD, MPH, has amassed 200-plus infectious disease artifacts, mainly focused on malaria and measles—Moss’s areas of expertise. His most cherished item? That’s easy, he says: an 1889 book signed by Alphonse Laveran, who discovered the malaria parasite.
William Moss holds an 1890s-era porcelain Chamberland-Pasteur bacteria filter.
Measles vaccination brochure, 1965 ad promoting the measles vaccine, door sign for a measles isolation room.
1943 U.S. Army-issued pocket book advising soldiers how to avoid malaria written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss).
Smallpox quarantine sign, smallpox vaccine vial, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company brochure promoting smallpox vaccination.
1930 Time magazine cover featuring William Henry Welch, MD, founding dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.
Boston Health Department door sign for a polio isolation room.
1795 first edition of Medical Facts and Experiments by Francis Home, who showed that measles is caused by a pathogen in the blood.