It’s often said that journalism is the first draft of history. I hope that’s true because I possess, in seven full-size filing cabinets in my garage, an unvarnished account of twentieth-century science as observed and reported by three generations of science writers—my grandfather Howard H. Blakeslee; my father, Alton L. Blakeslee (both science editors of the Associated Press from 1925 to 1985); and myself, Sandy Blakeslee, as a science reporter for the New York Times beginning in 1968.

In this year of coronavirus confinement, I’ve taken up the task of sifting through these twenty-eight file drawers, page by flimsy page, to document what (may I say) prominent science writers deemed worthy of dissemination. I’ve only managed to comb seven drawers so far, but the findings are fascinating, ranging from the important to the wacky.

Important topics include the Atomic Age and Manhattan Project, the Kinsey Report, exploration of Antarctica, eugenics, war, and the discovery of antibodies, REM sleep, dendrites, and macrophages. Then there’s a lot on prefrontal lobotomies, about which Alton used to say, “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy.”

Imaginative stories abound. To wit, a hissing sound to shake fog out of airports, how to sex day-old chicks, and some odd facts and curious claims, such as that eyes retain crude images of a murderer after death and U.S. Senators’ brains are two ounces heavier than Congressmen’s brains. My favorite so far: an admonition to doctors that the so-called bedside manner should not include kissing the patient. There is a lot on X-rays from the late 1920s to mid-1950s, such as you can X-ray newborn babies’ hands to predict height, treat sinus infections in children with X-rays, and take X-ray pictures of a living brain via holes drilled in the skull.

Not surprisingly, many articles are what we today consider politically incorrect. Files are sprinkled with reports about (then-clinical) terms, including morons, imbeciles, idiots, cretins, and the feebleminded. Sexism? You bet. Short skirts contribute to bedlam. Habits that make a girl a good employee make her a bad mother. And childbirth anesthetics kill love for children. Another favorite: Your wife’s brain is as good as yours.

I also found treasures within the five enormous folders on polio and the Salk vaccine. Some of the information is prescient: doctors must give plasma in the first few days of infection for the treatment to work (which apparently holds true for COVID-19). Some is nonsense, such as that chiropractors can cure polio.

And some is prelude to today’s rampant anti-vaxxer movement. The above flyer from the early 1950s crows that “fake polio vaccine may kill your child.” Its language—inoculation for immunity is strictly a “theory” and the practice of inoculation makes the body “unclean”—fits right in with current internet screeds on the perils of vaccination. Reading it makes you realize nothing much has changed in the scientifically illiterate mindset that prevails in this country. As attacks on current COVID-19 vaccines inevitably mount in the disinformation social mediasphere, it may help to recall that such attacks have been around for decades. While they can cause real harm, given enough time they also fade into old filing systems.