Displayed is a 1960s cut vintage autograph from Jonas Salk, the inventor of the vaccine against polio. Salk was born in New York City in 1914 and graduated from CCNY and the NYU School of Medicine. While at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as a professor, he spent seven years to develop a vaccine against polio. After extensive testing, the polio vaccine, made from a dead virus, was declared safe. Canada, Sweden, Denmark, West Germany, and many other countries began to use the vaccine in addition to the United States, and by 1959, about 90 countries were using the Salk vaccine. A July 17, 1955, article in the New York Times called "What Price Fame - to Dr. Salk" stated that Salk "...has very little perceptible interest in the things that interest most people - such as making money." In fact, Salk refused to patent the vaccine or make money from it, instead desiring to make it available to as many people worldwide as soon as possible. In awarding Salk the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, then-President Jimmy Carter said: "Because of Doctor Jonas E. Salk, our country is free of the cruel epidemic of poliomyelitis that struck almost yearly.... untold thousands who might have been crippled are sound in body today. ...These are Dr. Salk's true honors...." The cut signature, neatly signed in ink, is on an approx. 2.25x4" piece of paper or card stock. Below the cut signature is plastic possibly created by an embossed Dymo labeler created by an unknown source, reading, "Dr. Jonas Salk/Discoverer of polio vaccine on April 12, 1955/Heads National Foundation/Salk Institute for Biological Studies/La Jolla Calif." The cut signature has been encapsulated, and it has a PSA/DNA Auto Grade of MINT 9.