The UT Southwestern Health Sciences Digital Library and Learning Center’s Special Collections and Archives includes more than 200 medical artifacts. Thanks to the Dallas Public Library, selected highlights from the medical artifact collection are on now display at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in downtown Dallas.
Some of the artifacts on display include:
- An English homeopathic medicine case (circa 1873)
- Pocket surgical kit with a paper packet of surgical needles, manufactured around 1880
- Surgical instruments catalog published in1890
- Snake bite kit similar to those issued to oil field workers in Texas in the 1930s and 1940s
A snake bite kit similar to those issued to oil field workers in Texas in the 1930s and 1940s
Some selected artifacts also have connections to the Texas Physicians Historical Biographical Database. This publicly-accessible database contains brief biographical entries and citations for more than 10,000 Texas physicians who either practiced in or had strong historical connections to Texas. Artifacts from physicians William Benjamin Goodner and Luis Leib are included in this exhibit.
A small selection of patent medicines and pharmaceutical containers
A small selection of patent medicines and pharmaceutical containers are also on display. The federal 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act called many of these earlier medicines into question. To learn more, the National Library of Medicine provides online access to the FDA Notices of Judgement Collection, which contains a fascinating digital archive of evidence files, including correspondence, legal records, lab reports, product labeling, photographs, and more.
St. Paul Hospital on Bryan Street, two nurses adjusting empty orthopedics patient bed. http://utswlibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p13044coll6/id/601
One of the four display cases contains a range of artifacts, such as the pitcher (visible in this circa 1955 photo) that are also part of the extensive St. Paul Hospital Collection, 1896-2004.
The exhibit is available for viewing on the fifth floor (Business & Technology) of the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in downtown Dallas until mid-February 2018.
Questions or comments about the exhibit? Contact archives@utsouthwestern.edu.