This article reviews the historical research on cowpox vaccine and vaccination published abroad since the 1980s and discusses the necessity of global perspective in studying relevant Korean cases from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. Korean historiography of cowpox vaccine and vaccination has grown in quality and quantity in the last several decades. However, the achievement has been mainly confined to Korea’s national boundaries or East Asia at large. Since the discovery of cowpox in the late eighteenth century, various techniques of vaccination as well as vaccine lymph were globally disseminated through the expansion of empires and locally established intellectual networks. This paper argues that reviewing research covering a wider geographical scope than East Asia and placing the Korean history of cowpox vaccination in this global picture enables a more in-depth and accurate understanding of vaccination technology, law, policy, public response, and the complex relationship during the proposed period in Korea. Despite a limited inclusion of articles and books written in English, this article encompasses a wide range of geographical locations beyond East Asia, including Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, India, Africa, and the Middle East.