Early Childhood Immunization Record...

This may not interest anybody but me, but here it is anyway- my childhood immunization record, showing my original birth name of Julia, from back in the 1950s. If you click on the images, to enlarge them, you can clearly read them. I came across this the other day and found myself studying it. You can see that some of my entries have Jeanette Munro listed as the physician. She was my childhood doctor, before I was sent off to boarding school at age 11. As I researched for this article, I discovered that she was the very FIRST pediatrician in Princeton, New Jersey! I don't know when she began her practice, but I'm guessing the 1940s or early 1950s. I remember I was given a lollipop at the end of each visit.

It also notes on the front side, in the 'Record of Childhood Diseases' section, that I had measles just after I turned two, in August of 1957. I don't remember that. I believe I also had chickenpox several years later, around age six or seven, though that's not mentioned on this record from earlier childhood.

Another thing I remember happening later in childhood is getting a tetanus shot, after stepping on a rusty nail that went through my shoe into my foot. It was especially distressing because it happened just a couple of days before Halloween, and so I could not go trick or treating that year. My cousins gave me some of their Halloween candy, but only the yucky stuff they didn't want.

One point to note in looking at this old immunization record is how early childhood immunizations have CHANGED in the last 50 years. Today there are several shots given that were not given when I was a child, such as Hepatitis A and B. Below is the list of today's early childhood vaccinations, for children in the United States.

Current Recommended Vaccinations:

Hepatitis B
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV)
DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis (whooping cough))
Hib (meningitis)
IPV (polio)
Influenza
MMR (measles, mumps, rubella)
Varicella (chickenpox)
MCV4 (bacterial meningitis) (for older children, ages 11 -12)
Hepatitis A

I, on the other hand, was given a smallpox vaccine, which is no longer given because smallpox was officially declared erradicated from the human population back in May 1980.

Early 20th century quarantine poster.

In October, 1977, Ali Maow Maalin of Somalia
contracted variola minor, becoming the last person
in the world to contract smallpox naturally.

Also, I was given vaccines for Thyphoid and Cholera. I don't know, but perhaps I was given those because the family was moving to Istanbul, Turkey. I see I was given a 'Schick Test', a diagnostic test designed to evaluate susceptibility to diphtheria, while we were still in Turkey, in June of 1959.

I know that in recent years childhood immuniztions have become somewhat controversial, with some parents refusing to give them to their children, fearing the potential risk outweighs the protection given. Back in the 1950s, I don't think anyone gave it a second thought.

Istanbul

Istanbul, Turkey, is a place where I almost died. Just as I turned 3 years old, my family moved from the US to Isanbul. We had a house that was right on the Bosporus, a body of water that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. One day I tumbled into the Bosporus, and would have drowned if not for my older sister, Paige, who was around 14 at the time. She heard the yells of our servant, who could not swim, and rushed out to dive in and save me. (Thanks, Paige!) The image above is the Bosporus, as seen from Satellite, and below is one of me at three, on the very edge of the Bosporus, tempting fate.

Last night I found a family Christmas card handwritten by my mother while we were living in Turkey. Mom has been dead for 40 years now, so it is rare for me to come across her handwriting. Her note is below. I have no idea who Aunt Jane was, but I was the baby she refers to. (My younger sister Temple was born just over a year later, after we returned to the US.)

And here is the front side of the card:

Here is a photo of me with both my parents while we were living abroad, taken in 1958 or '59. It looks as if whatever I was saying to them was amusing. I'm guessing now that I was having a vision of the future, and telling them all about the internet, and how someday I would put photos of them on my blog.



UPDATE: Aha! The mysterious Aunt Jane my mother was writing that Christmas note to has now been identified, thanks to my helpful brother Richard. She was Jane Erin Emmet de Glehn (1873-1961). She was the youngest sister of my great grandfather, Robert Temple Emmet. She was married to the artist Wilfred Gabriel de Glehn (1870-1951) and was also an artist herself, one of several women artists in the Emmet family, including Jane's sister Lydia Field Emmet. Below is a painting by John Singer Sargent, from 1907, showing Jane painting, with her husband nearby:

'The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy'

And below is an older Jane, painted by her husband:

And finally, here is one of Jane's own paintings: