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.
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Grave Marker
- Description (Brief)
- For many years, iron stake number 72 marked the final resting place of either Sarah Savage, an African-American woman, or Nathanial Cowart, a European American man, in the cemetery at the State Hospital at Milledgeville, Georgia. The ambiguity is because administrators used numbers more than once and the stakes were removed from the ground in the late twentieth-century. When Savage and Cowart died in 1880, their graves were located by a number rather than their name or dates. This stark record-keeping practice was common in state institutions across the country. Former patient in-mates, their families, and descendants have been replacing such markers with proper recognition in an effort to restore their humanity.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- n.d.
- referenced
- Cowart, Nathan
- Savage, Sarah
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2000.0139.01
- accession number
- 2000.1039
- catalog number
- 2000.1039.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, We CARE for You
- 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 Phoenix, Arizona.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- n.d.
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2003.0092.03
- accession number
- 2003.0092
- catalog number
- 2003.0092.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
lapel pin, Fight Infantile Paralysis
- Description (Brief)
- Poliomyelitis is a viral disease that occurred in epidemic form in the United States from the 1890s through the 1950s. Grass roots fund-raising, led by the March of Dimes, enabled its prevention and control. This lapel pin was a reward for donating to the cause and depicts children with limbs affected by the disease.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- n.d.
- maker
- Bastian Brothers Company
- ID Number
- 2003.0244.01
- catalog number
- 2003.0244.01
- accession number
- 2003.0244
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Mammograms Save Lives
- 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. This one advocates for mammograms, an x-ray procedure used to find breast tumors.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- n.d.
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2004.0129.21
- accession number
- 2004.0129
- catalog number
- 2004.0129.21
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Free Our People Adapt
- Description (Brief)
- NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this one from ADAPT. ADAPT is a grass-roots activist organization founded in Denver in 1983. “Free Our People” expresses their belief that people with disabilities should be able to live in the community rather than in nursing homes or institutions.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- n.d.
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2004.0171.03
- accession number
- 2004.0171
- catalog number
- 2004.0171.03
- 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, Equality, Justice & Access for All ADA...
- 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 that supports the Americans with Disabilities Act.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1990
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2004.3055.02
- accession number
- 2004.3055
- catalog number
- 2004.3055.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Independence Day 1 July 26 1990 ADA...
- 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, distributed to people who attended the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act by President George H. W. Bush on July 26th, 1990.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1990
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2004.3055.03
- accession number
- 2004.3055
- catalog number
- 2004.3055.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Real Health Care For All
- 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
- unknown
- ID Number
- 2004.3055.04
- accession number
- 2004.3055
- catalog number
- 2004.3055.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
button, Support the ADA
- 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 about the Americans with Disabilities Act.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- n.d.
- maker
- Creative Photo Crafts
- ID Number
- 2004.3055.05
- accession number
- 2004.3055
- catalog number
- 2004.3055.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center