Charles Michael Higgins (October 4, 1854 – October 21, 1929)[3] was an Irish-American ink manufacturer and anti-vaccinationist.
Charles Michael Higgins | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 4, 1854 |
| Died | October 21, 1929 (aged 75) |
| Occupation(s) | Ink manufacturer, writer |
Biography edit
Higgins was born in County Leitrim, Ireland.[1] He moved to Brooklyn at the age of six. Higgins was the inventor of Higgins American India Ink.[1] He operated the Charles M. Higgins Company to manufacture the drawing ink he invented.[1]
Higgins married Alexandra Fransioli in 1899 and they had three children.[1] He was a founding member of the Kings County Historical Society.[1] He opposed vaccination and was also an anti-vivisectionist.[4]
Anti-Vaccination League of America edit
Higgins was the co-founder and treasurer of the Anti-Vaccination League of America. The League was created in 1908 by Higgins and industrialist John Pitcairn.[5] Its anti-vaccination campaigns focused on New York and Pennsylvania.[5] Members were opposed to compulsory vaccination laws.[6] Higgins was the League's chief spokesman and pamphleteer.[7] Historian James Colgrove noted that Higgins "attempted to overturn the New York State's law mandating vaccination of students in public schools."[6] The League should not be confused with the Anti-Vaccination Society of America, that was formed in 1879.[5]
Higgins was criticized by medical experts for spreading misinformation and ignoring facts as to the efficacy of vaccination.[8][9] The League dissolved after the death of Higgins in 1929.[10]
Selected publications edit
See also edit
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f "Guide to the Charles M. Higgins papers 1978.114". Brooklyn Historical Society.
- ^ Anonymous. (October 23, 1929). Dead Ink Man. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 3
- ^ Anonymous. (1930). Charles M. Higgins. Proceedings of the National Wholesale Druggists Association 56: 83.
- ^ Anonymous. (1923). Some Quasi-Medical Institutions. Prepared and Issued by the Propaganda Department of the Journal of the American Medical Association. p. 23
- ^ a b c Walloch, Karen L. (2015). The Antivaccine Heresy: Jacobson v. Massachusetts and the Troubled History of Compulsory Vaccination in the United States. University of Rochester Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-1-58046-537-3
- ^ a b Colgrove, James. (2006). State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America. University of California Press. pp. 52–54. ISBN 978-0-520-24749-9
- ^ Altenbaugh, Richard J. (2018). Vaccination in America: Medical Science and Children’s Welfare. Palgrave. p. 51. ISBN 978-3-319-96348-8
- ^ Tolley, Kim (May 2019). "School Vaccination Wars: The Rise of Anti-Science in the American Anti-Vaccination Societies". History of Education Quarterly. 59 (2): 161–194. doi:10.1017/heq.2019.3. S2CID 151030120.
- ^ "Antivaccinationists in Albany". Journal of the American Medical Association. 64 (6): 520. Feb 6, 1915.
- ^ Colgrove, James. (2006). State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America. University of California Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-520-24749-9