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Item #20000603 Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family
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Scrapbook of Polio Survivor Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) compiled while in hospital -- newspaper clippings, paper crafts, letters from friends and family

From a late 1940s get well card from her grandmother: "Dear Carolyn, I hear you are being up in a wheel chair this week, which sounds good, and I know you will like it better getting around visiting. Here's hoping it will be soon that. you can go home. Take care of yourself. Grandma."

Another transcription:; "Hi Carolyn-- Daddy says you are feeling fine and it sure makes me feel good. Why don't you send me a note all about what you have been doing. How are you coming with your embroidery. Guess I'll have to get something like that to do to keep me from getting up and working too soon. Thought I'd get to come out tomorrow but Paul says I had better wait until the first of the week so I am going to listen to him so I'll be feeling good soon. Be seeing you. Love, Mother"

Ohio: 1949-1952. A moving album charting the recovery of a teenage girl with infantile paralysis at the height of the Polio crisis. Carolyn Ann Wheat Latimer (1934-2004) was struck with Polio at the age of 13 in 1949, and spent six months in an iron lung. She was confined to a wheelchair, and lost the use of muscles in her right arm and left leg, as well as developing scoliosis and weakened lungs. Despite her struggles, she graduated from the Ohio State University, married in 1956, and raised four children with her husband Robert Roy Latimer. The present album was gifted to her during her hospital confinement, and it appears to have given her both comfort and a source of entertainment during her recovery. Dozens of newspaper clippings fill the beginning of the album and paint a vivid picture of how the media covered polio victims' struggles and successes. While none of them appear to include Carolyn, there is a palpable sense of hope that accompanies these clippings, and they clearly lent her comfort and courage. The articles include images of recovering children, celebrity visits, fund raisers, braces and iron lungs. Other ephemera pasted into the album include: late 1940s handwritten letters from friends and family wishing her well; paper crafts that Carolyn presumably created in her hospital bed (napkin holders, a paper doll, an origami crane, a moveable novelty pig); a matchbook and printed program from a 1952 wedding she attended; 1952 basketball tournament programs; two letters from a letterman jacket; and a 1952 certificate for excellence in chemistry. Together, the ephemera in this album paint a picture of a courageous young lady who overcame challenges to lead a normal, happy life. It also serves as a stark reminder of the cost of the Polio crisis that some have forgotten today, and what life was like for American families before the Polio vaccine was invented in the mid-1950s. Single vol. (14.5" by 12"), approx. 40 blank leaves approx. half filled with newspaper clippings and ephemera, in original embossed cream-colored album covers secured at spine with brown cord. Ink inscription to upper board ("To Carolyn with love from Shirley Melan[?]"). Good to very good. A couple items loose, paper toned and brittle.

Price: $650.00

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Item #20000603