Novelty item in the shape of a milk bottle. One side has a color image of the Sunlight Milk plant. The other bears a trademark for Polk's Best. Included are three retractable toothpicks.
The menace of air pollution and global warming proved a potent motivating force for groups advocating renewable energy sources. The benign nature of wind power became another selling point, especially after the 1979 reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island raised widespread concern about the safety of nuclear power generation.
The button is among the more than 1,500 pin-backed environmental buttons that Gerald H. Meral donated to the National Museum of American History. Meral spent his career addressing natural resource concerns for the California state government and California-based non-governmental organizations. He began assembling his button collection in 1970.
Water rescue teams from the United States Coast Guard used this harness to save many residents of New Orleans and other Louisiana parishes inundated by the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. The harness or "strop" was lowered by motorized cable from a Coast Guard helicopter hovering overhead. A rescue swimmer would jump out of the helicopter into the water to help maneuver the strop around and under the victim's arms. Flood victims were also plucked off rooftops and out of trees using these strops. One consequence of Katrina's sudden and unexpected ferocity was the danger facing many people ill-equipped to escape the apparent safety of their homes.
Teams of helicopter rescuers made thousands of trips from air bases along the Gulf Coast in the search for survivors. Flying conditions over New Orleans in particular were hazardous in the days immediately following Katrina, as many police, military, and private services sought to use the suddenly clear skies to locate trapped victims.
For those who were rescued, one ordeal was quickly replaced by another longer ordeal of displacement, discovery of how much had been lost, and gradual recovery.
From the 1920s through the 1950s biologists and medical researchers made a concerted effort to solve the problem of tissue culture—how to raise and maintain cells for scientific research. Part of the challenge was to create a home outside the body in which cells could survive. At the National Cancer Institute, a team led by Wilton Earle (1902–1964) used tissue culture to study the process by which normal cells become cancerous. Earle, along with researchers Katherine Sanford, Virginia Evans, and Gwendolyn Likely, worked to develop proper nutrition—through a specially formulated broth—for cells grown in culture.
This object was used in Dr. Wilton Earle’s laboratory at the National Cancer Institute. Earle joined NCI in 1937 and served as head of its Tissue Culture Section from 1946 to 1964. He and his researchers were pioneers in the use of tissue culture for cancer research.
Sources:
National Museum of American History Accession Files 1991.0071 & 1997.0139
The blockbuster cancer drug Taxol first became available in 1992 and has since been used in the treatment for ovarian, breast, and lung cancer, and for Kaposi’s sarcoma. Its active ingredient was discovered through a joint research project between the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which screened plant materials for their possible use as cancer drugs. In 1962 project researchers found that the bark of the Pacific yew, Taxus brevifolia, contains an anti-cancer chemical. The process to isolate the chemical, however, required trees to be stripped of their bark and consequently die, a fact that concerned both environmentalists and drug manufacturers.
Environmentalists worried that large-scale harvesting of the trees would damage the trees’ natural habitat through clear-cutting and massive harvest of the slow-growing Pacific yews. The drug’s manufacturers realized that the current supply of natural Pacific yew was far from large enough to provide a sustainable source of bark for the continued production of Taxol over time. Slow growth and maturation rates of the yew made replacing natural sources through cultivation an untenable solution.
For these reasons, alternate sources of Taxol were investigated. Some scientists worked in the lab, trying to make the drug from scratch. Others, like microbiologist Gary Strobel, turned to the field, hoping to find a new natural source of the drug. Strobel wore this shirt on trips to the Himalayas when studying Taxus wallachiana, the Himalayan yew. Strobel did succeed in finding several natural alternate sources, all of them fungi which grew within yew and produced their own Taxol. He suggested growing these fungi in the lab and harvesting the Taxol they produced.
In the end, however, a sustainable source of Taxol came from a substance found in the needles of the European yew, Taxus baccata, which could be transformed into Taxol using a chemical reaction. Because needles could be harvested without killing the tree, this semi-synthetic way of making Taxol replaced bark as the commercial source of the drug. Later this process was replaced by simply growing the plant’s cells in the lab in large quantities and harvesting the Taxol they produced.
Sources:
Accession File
“Success Story: Taxol (NSC125973).” National Cancer Institute. Accessed online. http://dtp.nci.nih.gov/timeline/flash/success_stories/S2_Taxol.htm
“Biologist Gets Under the Skin of Plants—And Peers.” Richard Stone. Science. Vol. 296 No. 5573. 31 May 2002. p.1597.
Taxol Product Insert.
“2004 Greener Synthetic Pathways Award: Development of a Green Synthesis for Taxol Manufacture via Plant cell Fermentation and Extraction.” United States Environmental Protection Agency. http://www2.epa.gov/green-chemistry/2004-greener-synthetic-pathways-award
The bone marrow stem cell isolator, used to separate out bone marrow stem cells from blood samples, found its beginnings in 1981 when Dr. Curt Civin at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center identified an antibody that binds to a protein on the surface of bone marrow stem cells. The antibody provided a unique way to identify bone marrow stem cells among mixtures of different kinds of cells. Bone marrow stem cells, also known as progenitor cells, have the capability to develop into any of the various blood cell types, including those which play a vital role in the immune response.
In 1988 Dr. Alan Hardwick, a bioengineer at Baxter Healthcare Corporation’s Biotech Group in Santa Ana, California, designed and built a prototype bone marrow stem cell isolator using Dr. Civin’s antibody. Hardwick bound the antibody to small beads, and then placed the beads in solution with a mixture of blood cells. The antibody coated beads bound only to the bone marrow stem cells, and could be separated from the rest of the blood cell solution with the use of a magnet. Once the stem cell-bound beads were separated out, an enzyme could be used to remove the cells from the antibody beads, providing a pure sample of bone marrow stem cells. This object is a second-round prototype of the machine, developed in 1989.
The machine, under the brand name “Isolex,” was on the market starting in 1992. Although it was specifically marketed as a way to build stem cell reserves to replace the blood and immune systems in cancer patients whose own systems were destroyed by chemotherapy, the machine was also popular in experimental research projects, such as gene therapy, that often use stem cells.
Source:
Accession File
“Companies Use Many Methods to Select Elusive Stem Cells.” Hugh McIntosh. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Vol. 88. No. 9. 1 May 1996. p.573.
“Varmus to Rule in Fight Over Cell-Sorting Technology.” Eliot Marshall. Science. Vol. 276. 6 June 1997.
Isolex Magnetic Cell Selection System Instructions.
Out of sight, out of mind. That attitude proved a difficult hurdle for raising concern about the use of the ocean as a dumping ground for humanity’s escalating wastes. To inspire appreciation and respect for the marine environment, this late-20th-century button incorporates an image of the famed Japanese woodblock print, “The Great Wave.”
The button is among the more than 1,500 pin-backed environmental buttons that Gerald H. Meral donated to the National Museum of American History. Meral spent his career addressing natural resource concerns for the California state government and California-based non-governmental organizations. He began assembling his button collection in 1970.
With the invention of celluloid in 1870, many merchants now had a cheap, durable, and moldable plastic with which to produce complimentary advertising items. This shopping list booklet advertised the Bay State Carpet Company of Brockton, Massachusetts around 1900.
Tape measure. It has a round white and cream-colored celluloid cover with red and black print. An advertisment for Enfamil "breast-milk type formula product" is on one side, with an image in red of a woman breast-feeding a baby. The reverse advertises Deca-Vi-Sol, Poly-Vi-Sol, and Tri-Vi-Sol vitamin drops.
Circular tape measure. A cream-colored celluloid case with purple print reading "Dr. Miles' Medical Co. For Headache Elkhart, Ind." on one side and "For Relief of Any Pain" on the other side. On one side is an image of a vial package of pain pills. The tabe is cloth with a metal tab.
From the 1920s through the 1950s biologists and medical researchers made a concerted effort to solve the problem of tissue culture—how to raise and maintain cells for scientific research. Part of the challenge was to create a home outside the body in which cells could survive. At the National Cancer Institute, a team led by Wilton Earle (1902–1964) used tissue culture to study the process by which normal cells become cancerous. Earle, along with researchers Katherine Sanford, Virginia Evans, and Gwendolyn Likely, worked to develop proper nutrition—through a specially formulated broth—for cells grown in culture.
Cells required the broth to be changed regularly, necessitating the scientists to first remove the old broth. Researchers realized, however, that the floating cells were often removed along with the old broth. To address this problem, Earle developed a new kind of flask in which to grow the cells. The so called T-flask (named for the glass tubing from which it was blown), could be centrifuged prior to changing broth. Doing so trapped cells in the conical end, preventing them from being sucked out with the old broth.
This objects were used in Dr. Wilton Earle’s (1902–1964) laboratory at the National Cancer Institute. Earle joined NCI in 1937 and served as head of its Tissue Culture Section from 1946 to 1964. He and his researchers were pioneers in the use of tissue culture for cancer research.
Sources:
Lyons, Michele, and Jr. Museum of Medical Research DeWitt Stetten. Seventy Acres of Science the National Institutes of Health Moves to Bethesda. Bethesda: Office of NIH History, National Institutes of Health, 2006. http://history.nih.gov/research/downloads/70acresofscience2.pdf.
National Museum of American History Accession Files 1991.0071 & 1997.0139
Stetten, DeWitt, and W. T. Carrigan. NIH : An Account of Research in Its Laboratories and Clinics. Orlando: Academic Press, 1984. http://archive.org/details/nihaccountofrese00stet.
Smoking tobacco was linked to lung cancer early in the 20th century, but it was not until 1964 that the United States Surgeon General declared smoking to be a major cause of lung cancer and recommended that smokers kick the habit. In the years following the Surgeon General’s recommendation, organizations such as the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society waged campaigns to educate people about the dangers of smoking.
When the dangers of second-hand smoke became evident, the anti-smoking campaigns expanded to include linking human health to the environment. This was part of a growing trend among activists in the 1970s and 80s to deal with air pollution, noise pollution, and other issues relating to life in our towns and cities.
First Flight was a thoroughbred horse that was transformed by scientists into a living factory to produce botulism antitoxin from the late 1970s through the 1990s.
Originally a race horse, First Flight later worked as a caisson horse in military funerals at Arlington National Ceremony. After serving for a time in this capacity, he was found to be too skittish. In 1978, at the age of 10 years, First Flight was transferred to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Scientists at USAMRIID undertake defense research against biological weapons, and while there First Flight participated in efforts to produce a countermeasure against attack with botulinum toxin. As the most powerful natural poison known to exist, botulinum represents one of the greatest threats for biological warfare. Produced by the bacteria Clostradium botulinum, the toxin is responsible for botulism, a disease which results in paralysis and often death if not treated. (The powers of botulinum are also put to work in the popular drug Botox, which, when injected, reduces the appearance of wrinkles by paralyzing facial muscles.)
Researchers harnessed the power of First Flight’s immune system to produce the antitoxin. They injected him with altered less-toxic forms of the botulinum toxin in order to induce his body to produce antibodies against the attack. Antibodies are small, disease-specific proteins the body produces in order to recognize and help fight invading infectious agents. After First Flight produced sufficient botulinum antibodies to protect himself, scientists injected him with the real toxin, which boosted his production of antibodies even further.
First Flight was then carefully bled to obtain the antibodies from his blood. These antibodies, contained in his blood plasma, made up the key ingredient in antitoxin serum. Once purified, the serum could be injected into humans suffering from botulism in order to neutralize the effects of the botulinum toxin. This form of treatment, known as serum therapy, has been practiced since the late 19th century, when it was important in the fight against rabies, diphtheria, tetanus, and other illnesses.
In 1980 First Flight moved to a new home at the University of Minnesota Medical School, which specialized in harvesting horse antibodies. Nearly 16,000 liters of blood were removed from First Flight during his time at Minnesota, and he became the nation’s sole source of antitoxin against all seven forms of botulinum toxin. With the start of the Gulf War in 1991, First Flight’s antitoxin was shipped to Saudi Arabia to be at hand should Saddam Hussein order the use of botulinum toxin to attack U.S. troops. Thankfully, the serum did not need to be used.
First Flight eventually retired from service and returned to Fort Detrick, where he died at age 31 in his paddock on May 17, 1999, of natural causes.
Sources:
Accession File
“Race for a Remedy.” Crowley, Carolyn. Smithsonian Magazine. December 2000.
“Botulinum Toxin (Botulism) Fact Sheet.” University of Pittsburg Medical Center for Health Security. http://www.upmchealthsecurity.org/website/our_work/biological-threats-and-epidemics/fact_sheets/botulinum.html
From the 1920s through the 1950s biologists and medical researchers made a concerted effort to solve the problem of tissue culture—how to raise and maintain cells for scientific research. Part of the challenge was to create a home outside the body in which cells could survive. At the National Cancer Institute, a team led by Wilton Earle (1902–1964) used tissue culture to study the process by which normal cells become cancerous. Earle, along with researchers Katherine Sanford, Virginia Evans, and Gwendolyn Likely, worked to develop proper nutrition—through a specially formulated broth—for cells grown in culture.
Early cells needed a support to cling to in order to grow properly. The NCI team utilized both sheets of cellophane and the small Pyrex glass helicies seen in this flask before improved broths eliminated the need for them.
This object was used in Dr. Wilton Earle’s laboratory at the National Cancer Institute. Earle joined NCI in 1937 and served as head of its Tissue Culture Section from 1946 to 1964. He and his researchers were pioneers in the use of tissue culture for cancer research.
Sources:
National Museum of American History Accession Files 1991.0071 & 1997.0139
Acid rain emerged as a disquieting problem in the eastern United States and Canada during the 1980s. The principal cause was sulfur dioxide emitted from coal-fired power plants, which acidified rain and snow and thereby damaged forests and killed aquatic life. This button reflects citizen-led efforts during the 1984 presidential campaign to confront a politically fraught environmental challenge.
The button is among the more than 1,500 pin-backed environmental buttons that Gerald H. Meral donated to the National Museum of American History. Meral spent his career addressing natural resource concerns for the California state government and California-based non-governmental organizations. He began assembling his button collection in 1970.
Metal nail file with a celluloid handle marked "Ivory Pyralin DuBarry."
Pyralin, the trade name of celluloid produced by the Arlington Co., derived from the word pyroxylin. DuPont used the term in the 1920s and 1930s. The "DuBarry" line of celluloid dresser set articles, the first and most popular line from the Arlington Co., was continued by DuPont.