# Blood Bank

*Black medical innovation turned blood preservation into a practical, lifesaving system, and the record must name the makers plainly.*

> Black's Encyclopedia — the sourced record of Black American life.
> Portal: Science & Invention · Status: In review · Revised: July 21, 2026 · Revisions: 1
> Canonical: https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/blood-bank-bd42

## Questions this record answers

- Did a Black man help invent the blood bank?
- Who made blood transfusion storage practical?
- Why is Charles R. Drew central to the history of blood banking?

## Summary

Charles R. Drew transformed blood preservation by proving that plasma could be separated, stored, and shipped on a scale that made modern blood banking practical. His work helped create the system that emergency medicine still depends on.

## The archive's standing

Blood banking is one of the clearest examples of Black authorship in modern medicine. Drew did not merely contribute to a field; he changed its operating logic and made large-scale blood preservation possible. The archive holds him as a principal architect of the modern blood bank.

## The invention that mattered

Drew’s work on blood plasma storage solved the central problem of keeping blood usable beyond the moment of donation. That advance made organized blood collection, transport, and battlefield use possible.

## Why the subject was whitewashed

Popular accounts often flatten the blood bank into an anonymous medical improvement and detach Drew from the system he helped build. That erasure is especially damaging because his work sat at the center of wartime and hospital medicine.

## The archive’s record

The blood bank belongs in the class of ordinary necessities built through Black intelligence. Drew’s achievement shows Black authorship in one of medicine’s most practical technologies.

## What this record corrects

The common story often credits institutions before inventors. The archive reverses that order: first the maker, then the machine, then the institution that later claimed it.

## Sources

1. C. R. Drew, “Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Preservation,” *Surgery, Gynecology & Obstetrics* 79 (1944): 593–604.
2. Thomas S. Dudley, “Charles Richard Drew, MD (1904–1950): Blood and Transfusion Pioneer,” in *Black Leaders in Medicine*, edited scholarly volume (source commonly held in medical history collections; exact edition varies by repository).

## Related records

- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/charles-drew
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/blood-bank
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/daniel-hale-williams
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/refrigerated-truck
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/united-states-patent-system-and-black-inventors

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Cite as: Black's Encyclopedia, "Blood Bank," revised July 21, 2026. https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/blood-bank-bd42

Text under the Black's Record License: cite the record, keep attribution attached, cite the revision date.