Thank You for All Vaccines

Artist: Claire Ramsey

Materials: sterling silver, vintage watch crystal, vintage rabies vaccine dog tag, pipette

Dimensions: approximately 2.25" x 1.5" 

Beneficiary: The Lois Price Spratlen Foundation provides scholarships for graduate education in nursing, via the Association of Advance Practice Psychiatric Nurses aappn.org

Artist Statement: I regard vaccines as miracles of human curiosity and scientific problem solving. In 1796, Dr. Jenner inoculated hundreds of British children against cowpox after noting that milkmaids were resistant to the disease. Washington's troops were inoculated against smallpox during the Revolutionary War. When did scientists begin to investigate messenger RNA vaccines? In at least 1997. When did they focus on coronaviruses? In about 2000. I am grateful to all of the curious doctors and scientists who have labored over centuries to develop life-saving vaccines. Since 2020 I have been gathering a "vaccine collection" of found objects and photos to make small assemblages to celebrate vaccines and to mark the COVID-19 Pandemic. My pin documents rabies vaccines for dogs, specifically in 1971 in Cook County IL, but it stands for all the miraculous vaccines!

50% of the sale of this piece will be donated to the beneficiary listed above.