[3] The Art Deco building is named after Jonas Salk, who conducted his research on the first polio vaccine in a basement laboratory while on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh.

[6] The 225-bed hospital was originally part of the Medical Center associated with the University and was intended to be used primarily to treat communicable diseases.

Therefore, in September 1949, work began on remodeling the building, and it temporarily housed Pitt's School of Public Health.

[8] The Salk Hall Annex, a major renovation and three-story addition designed by the architectural firm Deeter, Ritchey, and Sippel[9] for the Dental School, was completed the Terrace Street side of the building in 1967[10] for a cost of over $5 million ($48.3 million today).

Among the museum's possessions are two hand-carved finials, which were often found over the door or partitions that separated the main part of the pharmacy from the back room where pharmacists did most of their work, an old-fashioned powder mill, and a konseal machine.