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 1307 items.
Page 115 of 131
Syrup Jar, SYDACETSO
- Description (Brief)
- Marked, "SYDACETSO".
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 16th century
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0543
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-05755
- collector/donor number
- SAP 467
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.0543
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apothecary Jar, Albarello
- Description (Brief)
- Double-handle drug jar. Two portraits, one of a man, one of a woman on opposite sides of the container. Blue and yellow circular stripes at the neck and just below the portraits. Green and white twisted handles.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1500
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0544
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-05756
- collector/donor number
- SAP 468
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.0544
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apothecary Jar, Albarello
- Description (Brief)
- Albarello with green, yellow and blue-green glazes. The center of the oval shield depicts the back of a nude woman and the other side of the container is a man's profile within a larger circle.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 16th-17th century
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0546
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-05758
- collector/donor number
- SAP 470
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.0546
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apothecary Jar, Albarello
- Description (Brief)
- Yellow, cobalt blue and green waisted drug jar. Oval medallion with a white robed saint is surrounded by foiliage and bands of geometric designs at the shoulders.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1600
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0547
- catalog number
- M-05759
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- collector/donor number
- SAP 471
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.0547
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
TROCIS DE CAPPA RIBVS
- Description
- This albarello is elaborately decorated with mythical figures. A white scroll is marked “TROCIS DE CAPPA RIBVS" in blue text. Urdang dates this jar from the Italian city of Urbina to the 16th century. Albarelli with wide mouths were used to store dry leaves and bark and other bulky material.
- Albarello was a type of majolica (also spelled maiolica) earthenware jars used in apothecary shops from the Middle Ages. Majolica pottery received its named from the Italian town of Majorca, where the style of earthenware was developed. The tin glaze of majolica resulted in an opaque whiteness that mimics porcelain. The jar would then be painted with vivid colors.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 16th century
- ID Number
- 1991.0664.0553
- accession number
- 1991.0664
- catalog number
- M-05765
- collector/donor number
- SAP 477
- catalog number
- 1991.0664.0553
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
No. 5 Field Case Surgical Set
- Description
- Many of the surgical sets used during the American Civil War were made to the specifications of the Union Army. This Civil War surgical set was made by George Tiemann & Company of New York City. Tiemann, who emigrated to America from Germany in 1826, was considered one of the finest surgical instrument makers of the 19th century.
- This set contains instruments needed for wounds inflicted on a battlefield— amputation knives, saws, a touniquet, retractors, and bone and bullet forceps. The mortality rate from wounds inflicted on the battlefield was very high. Damage done by a minie ball to an arm or a leg could be extensive, creating gaping holes, shattering bones, and tearing muscles. Over 250,000 wounds from bullets and almost 30,000 amputations were recorded during four years of war. It was often more prudent to amputate the limb before infection set in.
- Also included in the case are eleven admission and matriulation cards from the Medical College of Ohio. Issued to John B. Cline, the cards date from 1850 to 1853, and allow admission to classes such as "Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children," and "Materia Medica and Jurisprudence."
- The surgical set includes forty-four instruments housed in a roswood case with brass trim.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1861-1864
- associated dates
- 1861-1864
- issuing authority
- United States Army
- company owner
- Tiemann, George
- maker
- George Tiemann & Company
- ID Number
- 1991.0858.01
- catalog number
- 1991.0858.01
- accession number
- 1991.0858
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Health Food: Macrobiotic Brown Rice
- Description
- Brown rice became popular in the United States as part of the whole and organic foods movement that began in the 1960s and 1970s. Health food stores sprang up to meet the new consumer demands for such things as whole wheat products, tofu, miso, and brown rice (to produce the familiar white rice, rice is "polished" by removing its nutritious outer coat of bran). Today, organic and whole foods are found in every neighborhood grocery store, and many restaurants serve brown rice and vegi-burgers as a matter of course.
- This bag of rice was donated by Michio and Aveline Kushi, two of the foremost teachers of macrobiotics. Macrobiotics, meaning literally "big life," is a spiritual, nutritional, and therapeutic system that focuses on the interrelationship of mind, body, spirit, and society. Whole foods, such as brown rice, are central to a macrobiotic diet, and many of the first customers and owners of the alternative food stores were students of macrobiotics. Macrobiotic principles are Pan-Asian in origin, dating back several centuries. In the 20th century, a few creative and brilliant teachers, such as the Kushis (who immigrated to the United States from Japan after World War II), emerged who distilled the wide-ranging ideas and interpreted them for modern, urban, and industrialized life.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- distributor
- Great Eastern Sun
- maker
- Great Eastern Sun
- ID Number
- 1997.0240.05
- catalog number
- 1997.0240.05
- accession number
- 1997.0240
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
The Visible Woman
- Description
- This is an anatomical model of a woman, complete with removable parts. The kit includes a clear plastic body or shell, a "complete" skeleton, "all vital organs," and a round plastic display stand. The kit was designed as an educational tool to teach basic anatomy. The intructions explain how to assemble and disassemble the model. The "Visible Woman" was inspired by the success of another anatomical model for children, "The Visible Man." The kit includes a pamphlet, "Introduction to Anatomy," and the manufacturer's guarantee. This kit was never assembled.
- One of the more interesting features or non-features of this kit is the lack of genitalia. Manufacturers of anatomical models offered male and female models with and without sexual organs. Americans in the 19th century used phrases such as "after nature" and "organs of generation" to gently refer to reproductive organs. This practice continued well into the 20th century, when paper models and later plastic model kits produced for the general public lacked sexual organs.
- A note to parents in the lower left corner of the top of the box warned that the contents included the "Optional Feature: The Miracle of Creation." Separated from the other parts of the model in a brown box, the adapter kit for a 7-months pregnant female includes special instructions for assembling the eight additional parts, which include an expanded breast plate for the prgnant uterus, the small intestines, and the fetus.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Renwal Products Company
- ID Number
- 1998.0185.01
- catalog number
- 1998.0185.01
- accession number
- 1998.0185
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
The Visible Man
- Description
- People have long sought better ways to illustrate and understand the structure and functions of the human body. Paper dolls and wax, papier-mache, and plaster anatomical models have all been used as tools to teach human anatomy. In the wake of the launch of the Sputnik satellite, the Renwall Toy Corporatiion of Mineola on Long Island, New York, prepared a line of models for educational purposes. Participants in the project included company executives Irving Lublow amd Irving Rosenbloom and New jersey designer Marcel Jovine. they proposed and designed this plastic anatomical model with removable parts.
- Introduced in the fall of 1959, it initially sold for $4.98. The model has a clear plastic body or shell and comes with a "complete" skeleton, "all vital organs," and a round plastic display stand. The kit also includes instructions on how to assemble and disassemble the model and a pamphlet, "An Introduction To Anatomy: An Illustrated Guide to the Visible Man." This kit was never assembled.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Renwal Products Company
- ID Number
- 1998.0185.02
- catalog number
- 1998.0185.02
- accession number
- 1998.0185
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
AIDS Memorial Quilt Panel
- Description
- This panel from the AIDS Memorial Quilt honors activist Roger Lyon, who died of AIDS in 1984. Shortly before his death, Lyon testified before Congress to appeal for funding to combat the growing epidemic.
- One of the greatest challenges in the fight against AIDS was changing public attitudes toward the disease and its victims, who were predominantly homosexual men. To awaken a seemingly uncaring nation to the magnitude of the crisis, activists created the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Through its thousands of panels, each with a personal story, the quilt has served as a call for compassion, education, and action.
- Date made
- 1985-1990
- referenced
- Lyon, Roger
- maker
- McMullin, Gert
- ID Number
- 1998.0254.01
- accession number
- 1998.0254
- catalog number
- 1998.0254.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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