Summer 2004

1948 Time Capsule Reveals Interesting Relics

In 1948, Indiana was the first state in the nation to forge a physical and working relationship between its state public health agency and an academic medical center. This cooperative relationship was achieved, in part, with the construction of a $2 million public health building on the western edge of the IU School of Medicine campus.

That building, which housed the Indiana State Department of Health until 1996, is now vacant, but the contents of a time capsule unearthed from the building sheds interesting light on that era of public health.

The contents of the 6x9x12-inch lead box included a chart of 20 communicable diseases of which only one – smallpox – is no longer naturally occurring (though since Sept. 11, 2001, many are concerned that it could be used by terrorists as a biological weapon). Polio now is rare in the United States. Some others, such as diphtheria and scarlet fever, are much less common now than in 1948.

“But the more things change, the more they stay the same,” said Stephen Jay, MD, MPH, chairman of the IUSM Department of Public Health, who spearheaded the unearthing of the time capsule. “According to documentation in the time capsule, public health concerns in 1948 included physical fitness, food safety, safe drinking water, venereal disease and tuberculosis. All of those issues are relevant today.”