About This Stamp
This issuance in the Distinguished Americans series honors Dr. Jonas Salk (1914–1995), who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 for developing the first safe and effective vaccine against paralytic poliomyelitis. Periodic outbreaks of this worldwide viral disease — also called infantile paralysis or simply “polio” — paralyzed or killed thousands of people annually in the United States alone before the Salk vaccine became available in 1955.
Artist Mark Summers created the portrait on the stamp. As reference, he used a photograph (courtesy of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation) of Dr. Salk taken in the Virus Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh in October 1954. At the time of the photograph, Dr. Salk was checking the results of a polio test funded by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis through its March of Dimes campaign. (In 1979, the “March of Dimes” also became the official name of the foundation.)
The artist is noted for his scratchboard technique, a style distinguished by a dense network of horizontal lines etched with exquisite precision. Summers also created art for previous issuances in this series: Joseph W. Stilwell (2000), Claude Pepper (2000), Hattie W. Caraway (2001), Edna Ferber (2002), and Wilma Rudolph (2004).