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  • Grayscale photograph of two young boys standing with crutches and looking to the left. Another young child with crutches and leg braces walks into the park behind them.

Larry Silver

Polio Camp, Upstate New York

Maker

Larry Silver (American, b. 1934)

Title

Polio Camp, Upstate New York

Year

1952 (printed later)

Medium

  • gelatin silver print

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image: 33.7 x 35.6 cm (13 1/4 x 14 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

On On verso, at center, in graphite: 106 / NYC 01 / Larry Silver / POLIO CAMP / UPSTATE NY / 1952.

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Bruce Silverstein

Object Number

2018.104.16

Type

  • Photographs

Publications

  • Journal

Manual / Issue 17: Variance

This issue complements the RISD Museum exhibition Variance: Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Disability, on view through October 9, 2022.

Exhibition History

Variance
Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Disability
Feb 01, 2022 – Oct 09, 2022

Label copy

This photograph puts the viewer on the ground, looking up at the young children on crutches at play in a grassy field. Polio presented a major health threat until the first effective vaccine was developed in 1952. Children who survived polio but developed related disabilities faced stigma, but camps-such as the one depicted here-offered spaces for these children to be able to themselves, with their peers. This photograph both monumentalizes these children and allows us to consider the importance of vaccination. Since 1979, the United States has not had a single documented case of polio.

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Larry Silver (American, b. 1934)
Polio Camp, Upstate New York, 1952 (printed later)
Gelatin silver print
Image: 33.7 x 35.6 cm (13 1/4 x 14 inches)
Gift of Bruce Silverstein 2018.104.16

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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