The Medical History Collection at Dana is making medical history again! Along with the renovations to the library, new carpeting and paint, Dana has a new location and means of display for it’s collection of Medical History items. The previous Med History room was removed to extend a hallway and create a front door for Dana’s Administrative offices. With the removal of this room, Dana’s collection of Medical History books, instruments and doctor’s bags were put in storage. A new room, devoted to the Medical History collection, now houses most of these items.
In addition to a collection of books specifically devoted to the history of medicine in Vermont, the Medical History Room will contain a large display cabinet filled with tools dating from the early 19th century, and other artifacts used by physicians in Vermont and elsewhere. One can find tonsil snares, and tonsil seizing forceps; a resection knife with an ebony handle; or Freer’s nasal chisel, as distinct from Killian’s frontal sinus chisel. We own a doctor’s bag used in WWI by an 1899 graduate of the University of Vermont College of Medicine. These, and other objects, will be on display in the Med History Room in a rotating fashion, highlighting periods of importance in the history of medicine, or issues that have bedeviled the profession then, and now.
For more about Dana’s Medical History collection, please contact Angie Chapple-Sokol. The Medical History Room is open 1-3 pm on Wednesdays, and otherwise by appointment.