by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu I hope you’re sitting down, because this post is gonna be a wild ride. Archivist Philip Montgomery brought me a stereoscope image a few days ago and asked me to find out whether the fact that the card on which the photographs were mounted was curved was normal, or […]
Pigeon Hole Parking, 1953
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu The following letter and brochure come from the Hermann Hospital estate collection, which is immense and has not yet been processed. I had the project of transferring it into clean archival folders and boxes a few years ago, and I know there are some interesting things hiding among the […]
Thingamajig
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant We’re back with the answer to last week’s Thingamajig! Here it is, to refresh your memory: We got several suggestions about what this might be, including a snail race track (complete with “escargot”–car go–pun), a snake warmer, and, more seriously, a giant electrophoresis apparatus. Actually, the snake warmer guess wasn’t […]
Thingamjig
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu We’ve gotten some new donations, which have included new Thingamajig fodder. The following came from the estate of Thomas Matney, M.D. (1928-2010). It’s almost three feet long and, although it’s made of aluminum, it’s pretty much cast solid and probably weighs fifty or sixty pounds. Phil commented that it […]
Pneumothorax apparatus
by Alethea Drexler, archives assistant mcgovern@exch.library.tmc.edu We got a visitor on Monday who brought us a new gadget. Meet the pneumothorax apparatus: (double-click on image for a larger version) This machine, which is a little over a foot tall and has a cylinder about six inches in diameter, was used to induce artificial pneumothoraces […]
Spoonful of sugar, stat!
by Alethea Drexler archives assistant We received an inquiry a few weeks ago that involved a question about nineteenth century medications, and it turned into a rather interesting fact-search. While I have it on my mind, I thought we could take a look at one of our antique medicine cases. We have several doctors’ bags […]
Steam sterilizer
by Alethea Drexler archives assistant We’re back! I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. This week’s post features our vintage Castle steam sterilizer: This one is a small model–the box is about a foot long and seven inches tall–that seems to have been popular for specialty instruments (which would have been used in smaller […]
Thingamajig
by Alethea Drexler archives assistant Hey, it’s the Thingamajig! Remember the Thingamajig? I almost didn’t, either! This edition of Thingamajig features an object that has been hanging out at the McGovern Research Center for a long time but was only recently identified (yes, I will be able to post an answer for you next week). […]
Sanborn Viso Cardiette model 51
by Alethea Drexler Archives assistant Phil Montgomery is setting up a display of vintage medical machines today in the main library. I thought I’d share one of them with our blog readers. If you’re in the library, I hope you’ll go see it in person. This is the Sanborn Viso-Cardiette, model 51, a portable (“portable” […]
Legacy equipment
This TECA Model M. electromyograph survived long enough to make it to McGovern Collections. The device is part of the Martha Pugh, M.D., papers, which are now being processed. Dr. Pugh was a resident at the Baylor College of Medicine in the late 1960s. She was a member of the American Academy of Physical Medicine […]