Scope and Content: The Anitoxin and Vaccine Laboratory was established within the Massachusetts State Board of Health in 1904 for the preparation (initially by injecting toxins into or extracting naturally-occurring  toxins from animals), storage, and distribution of diphtheria antitoxin serum and smallpox vaccine.  Other vaccines were added as developed, including those for influenza, meningitis, pneumonia,  and poliomyelitis (derived from polio convalescents, eventually abandoned in the late 1930s as ineffective).  Antitoxin production began in the State House in 1894 but in 1895 was moved to Harvard University’s Bussey Institution, until the establishment of the state laboratory. By 1915 the laboratory functioned as part of the Division of Biologic Laboratories under the state board (renamed Dept. of. Public Health in 1919); by the 1950s the division no longer named or reported  separately on the laboratory.
Arrangement: In seven subseries; Arranged chronologically within each subseries
Restrictions: (Wassermann test results) Personal medical information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s 7, d 26(c) and c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University, Oct. 23, 2013
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