National Tuberculosis Association

This collection of recordings from the National Tuberculosis Association (a name used until 1968, now the American Lung Association) aired on WNYC as a public service to educate citizens about the spread of tuberculosis, an infectious disease that primarily affects the lungs. Transferred from 16 inch transcription discs, the recordings date from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. 

Publisher image Santa demonstrates where to place your Christmas Seal to help "Stamp out Tuberculosis." The seal is dated 1924. (National Library of Medicine/Wikimedia Commons)

Christmas Seal Campaign

This campaign consisted of "Christmas Seals" placed on letters and gifts during the holidays to raise awareness of lung disease and to encourage the recipient to also donate. The program began in 1907 when Emily Bissell, a Red Cross volunteer, designed the first seal to raise money for a sanatorium that was in danger of closing. (Bissell got the idea from Jacob Riis, the famed social advocate and documentary photographer, who had written about a similar program in Denmark.) The campaign was so successful that it became an annual partnership between the National Tuberculosis Association and the American Red Cross. Though tuberculosis is not the menace it once was in America, Christmas Seals are still sold each year to fight other threats to healthy breathing such as lung cancer, asthma, air pollution and secondhand smoke.

WNYC aired Christmas Seals-related public service announcements and performances presented by the most popular celebrities of the day, such as Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Ronald Reagan, Mickey Rooney and Shirley Temple, as well as a scene from the radio program Father Knows Best. 

The Constant Invader

Narrated by Vincent Price and Henry Fonda, each episode of The Constant Invader dramatizes the life of those suffering from, or affected by, tuberculosis. The program was intended to reach those who were unaware of the symptoms and the ease with which the disease could spread. According to one announcer, "This series of true stories about tuberculosis is brought to you by your Tuberculosis Association to give you a greater understanding of a disease that takes the lives of thousands of Americans every year, [and] still seeks to destroy the thousands who must live with the memory of it. Help them keep TB only a memory with the knowledge that saves lives!"

Publisher image A Works Progress Administration poster promoting better health care through the prevention of tuberculosis by better eating and sleeping habits, and more exposure to sunshine, 1941. (Prints and Photographs Division/Library of Congress)