Health & Medicine - Overview
The Museum's collections of medical science artifacts represent nearly all aspects of health and medical practice. Highlights include early X-ray apparatuses, such as one of Wilhelm Roentgen's tubes, penicillin mold from Alexander Fleming’s experiments, and Jonas Salk's original polio vaccine. More recent acquisitions include the first artificial heart implanted in a human, the earliest genetically engineered drugs, and materials related to David, the "Bubble Boy." Other artifacts range from artificial limbs and implant devices to bloodletting and dental instruments, beauty products, and veterinary equipment. The contents of a medieval apothecary shop and an 1890s drugstore form part of the collections, along with patent and alternative medicines. The collections also document the many differing perspectives on health and medical issues, from patients, family members, doctors, nurses, medical students, and out-of-the-mainstream health practitioners.
"Health & Medicine - Overview" showing 30 items.
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button, NYU Awareness Week
- Description (Brief)
- Pin-back buttons serve many purposes. They are efficient advertising vehicles, handy for fund-raising in support of a cause, concise statements of a person’s beliefs, a form of educational outreach, and convenient ice-breakers for conversation. NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this 1986 one from New York University.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1986
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 1999.0263.13
- accession number
- 1999.0263
- catalog number
- 1999.0263.13
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Voting is for Everyone...
- Description (Brief)
- Pin-back buttons serve many purposes. They are efficient advertising vehicles, handy for fund-raising in support of a cause, concise statements of a person’s beliefs, a form of educational outreach, and convenient ice-breakers for conversation. NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this one from 1981.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1981
- maker
- Jefferson Academy Students (Mentally Handicapped)
- ID Number
- 2004.3055.01
- accession number
- 2004.3055
- catalog number
- 2004.3055.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Support ADA Americans with Diasabilities Act 1989
- Description (Brief)
- Pin-back buttons serve many purposes. They are efficient advertising vehicles, handy for fund-raising in support of a cause, concise statements of a person’s beliefs, a form of educational outreach, and convenient ice-breakers for conversation. NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this one from 1989, when the Americans with Disabilities Act was under debate in Congress.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1989
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2004.3055.09
- accession number
- 2004.3055
- catalog number
- 2004.3055.09
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Civil Rights Sign the Bill!
- Description (Brief)
- Pin-back buttons serve many purposes. They are efficient advertising vehicles, handy for fund-raising in support of a cause, concise statements of a person’s beliefs, a form of educational outreach, and convenient ice-breakers for conversation. NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this 1989 one that connected the Americans with Disabilities Act to broader civil rights issues.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1989
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2004.3055.11
- accession number
- 2004.3055
- catalog number
- 2004.3055.11
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Zorane 1/50 Oral Contraceptive
- Description (Brief)
- The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.
- The Lederle Laboratories Division of the American Cyanimid Company produced this Zorane 1/50 brand oral contraceptive in 1974. The green and white packaging has a cover with a floral print and an image of a butterfly. The 28-pill regimen consists of 21 hormone pills and 7 inert pills. The pills are contained in a rectangular green plastic compact. A booklet entitled “What you should know about ‘the pill,’” with an image of a man and a woman on the cover, is included.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1980
- maker
- American Cyanamid Company. Lederle Laboratories Division
- ID Number
- 1981.0760.070
- catalog number
- 1981.0760.070
- accession number
- 1981.0760
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tabellae Anorethidrani Dipropionatis Oral Contraceptive
- Description (Brief)
- The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.
- This oral contraceptive was produced by the Sine Pharmaceutical Corporation of Shanghai, China, around 1988. The blister pack contains 12 red pills of unknown hormonal composition. The medication comes with a pamphlet.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1988
- ID Number
- 1989.0196.009
- catalog number
- 1989.0196.009
- accession number
- 1989.0196
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Chinese Oral Contraceptive
- Description (Brief)
- The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.
- This oral contraceptive was manufactured by the Beijing Pharmaceutical Factory in Beijing, China, in 1988. Contraceptives became important in China after the government instituted its family planning policy in 1978. The 21 pills are in a silver blister pack. Each pill contains .3 milligrams of norgestrel and .03 milligrams of ethinyl estradiol. The contraceptive pack includes an insert with instructions for use.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1988
- ID Number
- 1989.0196.018
- catalog number
- 1989.0196.018
- accession number
- 1989.0196
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Acupuncture Instrument Set
- Description
- Acupuncture has gone in and out of fashion over the centuries in both China and the West. Part of a 2,000-year-old system of medicine that originated in China, acupuncture spread across Asia and the world with the migration of Asian peoples. In 2002, there were about 15,000 licensed acupuncturists in the United States.
- Despite its continuous currency in Asian cultures, acupuncture did not gain a wide audience in the United States until the 1960s and 1970s. The revival of interest came on the heels of reports from several American physicians traveling in China, New York Times reporter James Reston's dramatic 1971 acupuncture treatment following an emergency appendectomy while in China, and Richard Nixon's historic 1972 visit.
- Acupuncture involves the application of very small needles inserted at specific points on the skin. The needles work to balance the body's flow of qi (pronounced chee). According to Taoist religious teachings, qi encompasses the fundamental life force that flows throughout the universe.
- As practiced today, acupuncture is an East-West hybrid. Its transnational character emerged in the early 20th century as Western influence became more pronounced in medical schools in mainland China in the decades before the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In those years of the Chinese Republic, traditional Chinese medicine was discouraged as intellectual elites pressed for modernization and practitioners felt imperialist pressures from the West and Japan. After 1949, the communist PRC regime encouraged traditional Chinese medicine, and the system developed as understood today through the establishment of several medical schools and training sites. Later, traditional practitioners cautiously welcomed Western, allopathic knowledge in the 1960s and 1970s as overseas Chinese, trained in the West, returned home with scientific ideas.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1988
- maker
- Hwa To Brand
- ID Number
- 1989.0196.082
- catalog number
- 1989.0196.082
- accession number
- 1989.0196
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Lyndiol Oral Contraceptive
- Description (Brief)
- The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.
- N.V. Organon of Oss, Holland, manufactured this Lyndiol brand oral contraceptive around 1988. Lyndiol came in a 22-pill monthly dosage (instead of the customary 21) following the manufacturer’s belief that “maximum patient reliability” could be achieved if each new cycle of tablets could begin and end on the same fixed day of the week. The silver blister pack has 21 pills arranged in a circular pattern around the edge, with the last pill in the center of the package. Each pill (except the last) is labeled with the day of the week in English and Chinese. The front of the box bears a slogan in Chinese, roughly translated as “Follow your wishes and avoid getting pregnant.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1988
- maker
- N. V. Organon
- ID Number
- 1989.0196.203
- catalog number
- 1989.0196.203
- accession number
- 1989.0196
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Beijing Pharmaceutical Oral Contraceptive
- Description (Brief)
- The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.
- The Beijing Pharmaceutical Factory in Beijing, China, produced these oral contraceptive pills around 1985. This box contains 50 bottles, with each bottle containing 22 pills. Manufacturers used 22 pill regimens in the belief that patient reliability was improved if each new cycle of tablets could begin and end on the same fixed day of the week. The box describes these as polypharmacy norgestrel pills, a combination of .3 mg of norgestrel with .03 mg of ethinyl estradiol. The label bears the crane logo of the manufacturer, and the blue stamped numbers to the crane’s left are the government approval marking.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1988
- ID Number
- 1989.0196.214
- catalog number
- 1989.0196.214
- accession number
- 1989.0196
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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