Artifacts from the first COVID-19 vaccination in the United States make their way to the Smithsonian

The glass vial used in America’s first COVID-19 vaccination was acquired by the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian. The museum also acquired related items, including the scrubs and vaccination card from Sandra Lindsay, director of critical care nursing at Long Island Jewish Medical Center who, on December 14, 2020, became the first person in the United States. to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. .

“The urgent need for effective vaccines in the United States has been met at unprecedented speed,” Anthea M. Hartig, director of the Elizabeth MacMillan Museum, said Tuesday in a statement. “These now historic artifacts not only document these remarkable scientific advances, but represent the hope offered to millions of people experiencing the cascading crises caused by COVID-19.”

Tuesday’s announcement came days before the first anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring the outbreak a pandemic. Since April 2020, a special museum working group has been researching objects and documentation related to COVID-19.

“We have had everything from offers of masks that people have made to items related to Covid treatment, to practitioners offering us items related to how they have done to protect themselves or their families,” Alexandra Lord , president of the division of the museum of medicine and science, told Smithsonian Magazine.

The vial and other items join the museum’s collection of materials related to historical epidemics and pandemics, including items related to the polio epidemic, the 1957 influenza pandemic, and the HIV / AIDS pandemic . Many objects from the collection will be on display in a 2022 exhibition, “In Sickness and in Health”.