Artifacts

Dairy Licenses

In 1909, the Board of Health of the State of New Jersey created the Division of Creameries and Dairies. This new division facilitated cooperation between the state and local health departments to ensure a safe milk supply. The division created a uniform score sheet by which all dairies were evaluated throughout the state. Historically, cities such as Newark and Patterson used their inspectors to visit dairies, primarily to certify vaccine status of the herds in the prevention of bovine tuberculosis. These efforts also extended to the inspection of sanitary conditions and the protection of the raw milk.

The actions of both state and local boards of health, resulted in a comprehensive milk safety program from dairy inspection to the consumer. To ensure the sanitary transportation of milk, many New Jersey municipalities enacted licensing requirements along with inspections of the distribution depots and vehicles. These licenses were issued annually and affixed to the delivery trucks.

The dairy license at the top was issued by the Board of Health of the Borough of Rockaway, New Jersey, in 1938. The dairy license on the bottom was issued by the Board of Health of Harrison, New Jersey, for 1948–1949 with an expiration date of June 30, 1949.

DC Board of Health Code   

On February 21, 1871, the U.S. Congress passed an act establishing the Board of Health of the District of Columbia. The board consisted of five individuals appointed by the U.S. president whose duty was to "declare what shall be deemed nuisances injurious to health and to provide for the removal thereof; to make and enforce regulations to prevent domestic animals from running at large in the cities of Washington and Georgetown; to prevent the sale of unwholesome food in said cities; and to perform such other duties as shall be imposed upon said Board by the Legislative Assembly.”

The Code of the Board of Health of the District of Columbia is an assemblage of ordinances and establishes of the Bureau of Sanitary Inspection. To staff this bureau, the board appointed Theo. F. Gatchell as sanitary inspector general, along with 12 inspectors, a poundmaster, and a remover of dead animals. The code was printed in 1872 by the Chronicle Publishing Company in Washington, DC.

Don't Spit on the Sidewalk Brick 

Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine (1862–1954) of Dodge City was one of the leading figures in the field of public health in the early 20th century. Beginning in 1904, he served as secretary of the Kansas State Board of Health for 20 years.

Dr. Crumbine was concerned about the spread of tuberculosis and other diseases and campaigned for their prevention. He became particularly concerned after observing tuberculosis patients spitting on the floor of a train. As part of his public health campaign, he convinced brick manufacturers to imprint the slogan, “Don’t spit on the sidewalk,” on their product. The bricks were widely distributed around the county and state. Capital City Vitrified Brick and Paving Company and the Coffeyville Vitrified Brick and Tile Company were the major manufacturers of these bricks.

Dr. Crumbine's public health crusade argued for pure food and drugs, the elimination of houseflies and rats, water and sewage sanitary control, and the prevention of tuberculosis. He succeeded in abolishing the common drinking cup, the common or "roller" towel, and spitting in public places. He promoted these campaigns with simple and easy to remember slogans, such as "Bat the Rat,” “Swat the Fly," and “Save the Baby.”

The Samuel J. Crumbine Consumer Protection Award was established in 1955 in his memory and is awarded each year to local environmental health jurisdictions that demonstrate unsurpassed achievement in providing outstanding food protection services to their communities. Dr. Crumbine was the model for the character of “Doc Adams,” played by Kansan Milburn Sone, on the television show Gunsmoke.

Earth Day Pin From 1970

 
This is an original Earth Day pin created for the first observance on April 22, 1970.

Since 1970, over 1 billion individuals have mobilized for action every Earth Day and over 190 countries have engaged in the observance. The first Earth Day was focused on the U.S. but it went international in 1990 with events hosted in 141 countries.

Earth Day 1970 emerged out of a growing concern for our environment and how that environment affects human health. The publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in 1962 set the stage for Earth Day by raising public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment, and the links between pollution and publich health. 

The idea for the first Earth Day originated from Senator Gaylord Nelson, a junior senator from Wisconsin, who had long been concerned about the deteriorating environment in the U.S. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, Senator Nelson wanted to infuse the energy of student anti-war protests with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a teach-in on college campuses to the national media, and persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his cochair. They recruited Denis Hayes, a young activist, to organize the campus teach-ins and they choose April 22, a weekday falling between spring break and final exams, to maximize the greatest student participation.

Recognizing its potential to inspire all individuals in the U.S., Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the country and the effort soon broadened to include a wide range of organizations, faith groups, and others. They changed the name to Earth Day, which immediately sparked national media attention. Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans (10% of the total U.S. population at that time) to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development that had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment and there were massive coast-to-coast rallies in cities, towns, and communities.

By the end of 1970, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of new environmental laws, including the National Environmental Education Act,  the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Clean Air Act. Congress passed the Clean Water Act two years later, as well as the Endangered Species Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act in the following year. These laws have protected millions of people from disease and death, and have protected hundreds of species from extinction.

In 1990, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Over the decades, earthday.org has brought hundreds of millions of people into the environmental movement, creating opportunities for civic engagement and volunteerism. Earth Day has become a major stepping stone along the pathway of engagement around the protection of the planet. Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world and is a day of action to change human behavior and create global, national, and local policy changes.

Notice to Milkmen     

The Notice to Milkmen placard was issued by the Connecticut State Department of Health to alert milkmen that a case of communicable disease was in a home. It  gave instructions on leaving milk and water delivered to the home in accordance with Regulation 26 of the Sanitary Code. The placard was dated and signed by the health officer.

There is no date on the placard, but from the diseases listed, it was probably used prior to 1950. 

Nuisance Complaint   

The nuisance complaint pictured above was issued by the health officer of Toledo, Ohio, on January 19, 1883, for filthy conditions. The interesting part of this citation appears on the obverse side of the order where the time spent on each action of the order and the corresponding fee is listed. The total violation amounted to $170.49. When adjusted for inflation, the violation would be $4,471.18 in 2021.

Sanitary Officer Photo From 1908 

A photo of sanitary inspectors from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, taken in 1908.

Smallpox Quarantine Sign   

The history of public health cannot be understood without artifacts such as this smallpox quarantine poster. This placard is a relic of the infectious-disease prevention campaigns of late 19th and 20th century state and local public health agencies as they sought to isolate the sick, encourage physicians to report cases, and educate the public. Signage to warn against communicable diseases found its link between law and public health with the publication of Quarantine Regulations by the National Quarantine and Sanitary Association of the United States in 1860. 

Placards posted on the home of a quarantined individual such as the wmallpox warning were commonplace for many illnesses until the advent of vaccines development in the 1930s and thereafter. 

The smallpox sign dates to the pre-1930s era and was issued by the Jasonville Board of Health in Indiana. 

Spitting Prohibited Sign 

This "Spitting on Floor or Walls Prohibited by Order of State Board of Health" dates to the early 1900s. The signage campaign was started at the urging of the members of the Ladies’ Health Protective Association, a group from New York City’s East Side, and later, the Young Women’s Christian Association.

The campaign was started after the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 1882 by the German bacteriologist Robert Koch. Tuberculosis killed 1 in 7 people in the U.S. and Europe during the late 1800s, making it the deadliest infectious disease at the time. By linking tuberculosis to a bacterium, Koch opened the door for public health campaigns that aimed to prevent its spread.

At first, the city put up these signs in street cars reminding people not to spit and encouraged residents to remind each other not spew their saliva on the streets. But in 1909, a new health commissioner decided to enforce the ordinance more forcefully. On random nights, he instructed health officers to arrest anyone they saw spitting on subway platforms. The Sanitary Squad, as the officers were called, would round up hundreds of alleged spitters. They were brought to court together and subjected to fines of up to $2. When that proved ineffective, the health department also began to hand out informational pamphlets about the purported dangers of spitting.

The sign pictured above was manufactured shortly after World War I.

U.S. Sanitary Commission 

Our profession had its modest beginning during the U.S. Civil War. The U.S. Sanitary Commission (USSC) was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army. It was modeled on the British Sanitary Commission that was set up during the Crimean War (1853–1856) and from the British parliamentary report published after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

In 1864, the USSC took as its symbol the red cross (top right) designed by Henri Dunant in 1863 as an inversion of the Swiss flag. Dunant proposed creating national relief societies made up of volunteers to be trained in peacetime to provide neutral and impartial help to relieve suffering in times of war. 

The inscription on the back of the badge (bottom right) reads: U.S. Sanitary Commission Army [of the] Potomac 1864–1865.

The embroidered hat device (bottom left) was worn by a USSC officer circa 1864.

Vendor Tags

Vendor tags such as these from Los Angeles, California, and Vernon, New Jersey, were commonplace throughout the U.S. from World War I through the 1960s. They were issued per ordinance by county and municipal health Departments and affixed to carts, wagons, and trucks carrying foods, particularly milk and ice cream, and other commodities such as ice and carbonated beverages that were offered for sale from the vendor directly to the consumer.   

The carts, wagons, and vehicles, as well as the depots in which they were stored and serviced, along with the foods that were offered for sale, were routinely inspected for sanitation and the absence of vermin by local sanitarians.