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 277 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, Disabled People's Movement
- 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 1976 one.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1976
- maker
- Hewig Marvic, Brooklyn, NY
- ID Number
- 1999.0263.14
- accession number
- 1999.0263
- catalog number
- 1999.0263.14
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Pride+Unity
- 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 1993 one from New York City.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1993
- maker
- N. G. Slater Corp.
- ID Number
- 1999.0263.17
- accession number
- 1999.0263
- catalog number
- 1999.0263.17
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Sign 504, Handicapped Human Rights, ACCD
- 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 created by ACCD, the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities. Before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 provided the core of legal protection for most people with disabilities. Disability activists organized protests and sit-ins to pressure the government into signing the regulations needed to implement the law. Joseph A. Califano, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare signed the regulations in 1977.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- n.d.
- maker
- N. G. Slater Corp.
- ID Number
- 1999.0263.18
- accession number
- 1999.0263
- catalog number
- 1999.0263.18
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Button, Crips are Beautiful
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- n.d.
- maker
- N. G. Slater Corp.
- ID Number
- 1999.0263.3
- accession number
- 1999.0263
- catalog number
- 1999.0263.3
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Shock is Elder Abuse
- 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. It is a criticism of electro-convulsive shock treatment, used on people with psychiatric disabilities.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1990
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2000.0030.01
- accession number
- 2000.0030
- catalog number
- 2000.0030.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Vote American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities
- 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. ACCD stands for the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities which existed from 1974-1983.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- n.d.
- maker
- N. G. Slater Corp.
- ID Number
- 2004.3062.09
- nonaccession number
- 2004.3062
- catalog number
- 2004.3062.09
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Dewitt's Pine Tar Shampoo
- Description
- Dewitt’s Pine Tar Shampoo was produced by E. C. DeWitt and Company of Chicago, Ill. The company marketed a variety of patent medicines beginning in the late 19th century, including Kodol pills for dyspepsia, One Minute Cough Cure, and Cascasweet for infants and children. The C. B. Fleet Company acquired E. C. DeWitt in 1990.
- While the exact date of this shampoo is not known, the trademark of a sun with rays rising over mountains was first used by the company in 1906 and officially trademarked in 1908. Pine tar was commonly employed to treat skin irritation and to restore health to itchy and inflamed skin, while relieving discomfort.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- E. C. DeWitt and Company
- ID Number
- 1979.0798.228
- accession number
- 1979.0798
- catalog number
- 1979.0798.228
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
7 Sutherland Sisters' Hair and Scalp Cleaner
- Description
- This granular shampoo was produced by the Seven Sutherland Sisters Corporation beginning in the late 1800s and into the 1930s. The sisters toured with Barnum and Bailey beginning in 1884 and were famous for their long hair, which stretched a supposed 37 feet in total. They were models, singers, and entertainers, and were among the first celebrity endorsers. They remain famous in Niagara County, N.Y., where they were born.
- Henry Bailey married one of the sisters and trademarked the name "7 Sutherland Sisters" in 1886, claiming to have been using it since 1884. This particular box is dated to around 1918. The hair products were still being advertised in the 1930s, but had begun their decline in popularity.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1918
- maker
- 7 Sutherland Sisters
- ID Number
- 1980.0317.03
- accession number
- 1980.0317
- catalog number
- 1980.0317.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Lady Wildroot Shampoo
- Description
- Wildroot Hair Tonic was introduced by the Wildroot Company, Buffalo, N.Y., in 1911. Trademarked in 1932, the Wildroot brand was eventually bought out by Colgate-Palmolive in 1959. The hair tonic was primarily marketed as a dandruff remedy and advertisements in the late 1940s and early 1950s asked, "Can your scalp pass the fingernail test?"
- Lady Wildroot Shampoo was introduced in the early 1950s and came in two sizes. This example is the larger of the two. Wildroot used the slogan "Gleams as it cleans, cleans as it gleams!" Advertisements suggest Wildroot stopped selling their Lady Wildroot Line around the mid-1950s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1950s
- maker
- Wildroot Company
- ID Number
- 1980.0698.127
- accession number
- 1980.0698
- catalog number
- 1980.0698.127
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center