When babies are born early, they often have trouble surviving. But special containers called incubators help babies grow by keeping them warm and protected.

At first, people in the medical world were skeptical about incubators. But some trailblazing doctors believed in the technology–and put it on display across Europe and the United States. Incubator exhibits showed the public how incubators saved lives. The controversial displays led people to accept this medical innovation. Meet the doctors who invented the incubator, and follow the incubator’s fascinating rise with this graphic history.