Runaway Robot | National Museum of American History

A brown skinned female lab worker with brown hair, green scrubs and a white lab coat
Portrait of Cotton Mather

The lab worker says:

Debates about vaccines go all the way back to Cotton Mather in 1721. He was a Puritan minister who advocated for vaccination during a smallpox epidemic. Some church leaders argued against him, saying that inoculation could not be found in the Bible and that God should ultimately be in control. Other Puritans came to his defense, saying that science comes from divine human reason.