CIA students draw surgical artifacts for class

Today we hosted another great group of students from the Biomedical Art program of the Cleveland Institute of Art. Prof. Tom Nowacki brought his medical illustration class to the Dittrick once again to draw surgical instruments from our collections. The sampling varied from O'Dwyer intubation sets to Tarnier's cephalotribe to Bigelow's lithotrite. The assignment revolved around the challenge of showing how these things worked, mechanically, and how they related to the body parts and tissue.

See some of the projects from last year. I'll post those from the 2011 class when they're done in a week or so.

Jim Edmonson

Sue Johanson from “Talk Sex” to present March 16 at Case

Sue Johanson from Talk Sex with Sue Johanson is making one of her final debuts on Wednesday evening on the Case campus at Strosacker Auditorium!

Sue first appeared on the radio with a talk show about sex, and then branched out to community access television, and then, in 1996, her show became a national show on the Women's Television Network (WTN).



Sue’s show came to U.S. viewers in 2002 as Talk Sex with Sue Johanson, produced especially for American audiences and debuted in November 2002 on the Oxygen Media. It wrapped in May 2008, but Sue has been on the lecture circuit since, largely at colleges and universities.

Johanson’s interactive lecture begins at 7:00PM, to be followed by with a Q and A session. The event is sponsored by the University Program Board at Case. For more details, visit the UPB website or call 216.368.2438

Jim Edmonson

Joanna Ebenstein presents Anatomical Venuses at the Dittrick tonight

March 1, 2011

In April 2007 Joanna Ebenstein created a fascinating blog, Morbid Anatomy, where she has since been "surveying the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture." Medical museum and collections, like the Dittrick, provide much of the content for Morbid Anatomy. But Ebenstein has cast her net still further, exploring arcane museums and curious collections across Europe and the UK.



I've known Joanna for some time now (seen here in Paris in 2009) and followed Morbid Anatomy with constant interest and fascination. Join us tonight for her presentation at 6:00PM, in the Powell Room of the Allen Medical Library, followed by a reception at 7:00PM in the Dittrick Museum.

Jim Edmonson

James Ist touch piece

Wonders never cease when working with the rich artifact collection of the Dittrick. For a class on the history of epidemic disease, I went looking for some votives to make a link between faith and healing. I knew we had an archival container with small stamped metal votives from the twentieth century, but was surprised when I opened a small jewelry box and found a solid gold coin.

Our accession records revealed that this artifact is a “touch piece” from the reign of James I of England. (He had originally been James VI of Scotland, succeeding his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots; under his reign the kingdoms of Scotland and England were united, hence the term United Kingdom, which he ruled from 1603 until his death in 1625.) So this coin was clearly quite old, and possibly had an intriguing history. There is also a very personal connection here, but I will save that to the end.

Henry IV of France touching King’s evil sufferers. From André Du Laurens, De mirabili strumas sanandi vi solis Galliae regibus.... Paris, 1609.

The Dittrick’s “touch piece,” comprised a token given to persons who experienced the “king’s touch,” a healing gesture practiced by kings of England from c.1275 to the end of the Stuart royalty, which concluded with Queen Anne in 1714. In France this practice lasted until 1789. Our British coin is an Angel, in circulation from 1465 to 1642; during the time of James I it was valued at eleven shillings (11s) or 132 pence.

On the obverse, or face, the coin bears the figure of the Archangel Michael slaying the dragon, and around the edge is the inscription Jacobus. D. G. Mag. Brit. Franc. & Hib. Rex. On the reverse, or back, one finds a ship on the waves, with its sail bearing royal heraldry, and inscribed on the edge Domino factum est istud.

A hole pierces the coin for insertion of a ribbon so that the supplicant might wear the coin after the being blessedly “cured.” Scrofula, or the “King’s evil” comprises the disease most closely associated with this healing ritual. It is a variant of tuberculosis that most commonly affected lymph nodes in the face and neck. In the English court, this practice ended with the succession of the Hanoverians, but in Scotland the Stuart “pretenders” continued it into the eighteenth century.

The royalist John Evelyn described the ceremony as performed by Charles II in a diary entry dated 16 July 1660:

His Majesty began first to touch for ye evil, according to custom, thus: ….the chirurgeons cause the sick to be brought or led up to the throne, where they kneeling, ye King stokes their faces and cheeks with both his hands at once,…. When they have all been totched [sic],… the other chapelaine kneeling and having an angel of gold strung on white ribbon on his arme., delivers them one by one to His Majestie, who puts them about the necks of the touched as they passe….

Now here’s the personal kicker: my daughter had scrofula when she was just 18 months old. Clinically speaking, she had atypical Mycobacterium avium complex, an infection usually seen in individuals with compromised immune systems. We were bewildered and scared, but had a great pediatrician who held our hands through the ordeal. Because of her age, anti TB drugs really were not an option; surgery was indicated and a wonderful (and perfectionist) pediatric surgeon dealt with the infection. It was like living in the nineteenth century, and believe me, you don’t want to be there with a sick child. “Living history” has its place, but not when it comes to illness and disease!

Jim Edmonson

For further reading see:

The Royal Cure for the King's Evil. British Medical Journal May 13, 1899: 1182-84.

Frank Barlow, The King's Evil. English Historical Review 95 (Jan, 1980): 3-27.

A touch pieces may be seen on display in the Science Museum (South Kensington, London, UK) in The Science and Art of Medicine gallery and on their website. And one surfaced in a dig at Jamestown, Virginia.

Condom Week 2011

From its inception, the condom has been a morally ambiguous object. Does it serve to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted disease, or is its chief function birth control? Well, either or both, actually. Its meaning and significance are socially constructed.

For the Handerson Lecture by Alexandra Lord on January 27, we prepared an exhibit of WPA era anti VD posters, 1937-43, curated by CIA biomedical art student Stephen Beuhrer. Additionally, Dittrick staff mounted a display of condom containers from the Skuy Collection dating from this period and these artifacts document important changes in condom manufacture and marketing. The 1930s and 1940s witnessed the rise of latex condoms, the beginnings of FDA testing, and a consequent shake-up of the condom making trade, leaving Julius Schmid and Youngs Rubber as dominant in the American marketplace.

During World War I American soldiers and sailors were counseled to keep clean and abstinent on their furloughs. If and when they had sex, they were issued small “Dough-boy Prophylactic” kits containing mercurial ointment for post-coital cleanup.

More widespread use of the condom began with a landmark case involving Margaret Sanger and the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. In 1918 Judge Frederick Crane of the court of appeals of New York affirmed the legality of contraceptives used for disease prevention. Before that time the Comstock Act had effectively criminalized birth control, including the condom, by banning the distribution of contraceptive information. The Crane decision neutralized the Comstock Act, at least with regard to condoms.

This gave condom makers their marketing slant in the 1920s and 30s: stress the disease preventive qualities of the condom, with only a wink at its contraceptive purpose. And make them available only through “ethical” druggists.

Julius Schmid, a German immigrant, first started making condoms (both skin sheaths and rubbers) during the black market era of Comstock. By 1930 he could openly register the trademark names Ramses and Sheik with the U.S. Patent Office, and the condom business made him a millionare.

The imagery of Egypt and Saudi Arabia might well have been inspired by the popularity of Rudolph Valentino and his dashing role in The Sheik (1921).

Youngs Rubber began condom manufacture in 1916, started selling Trojan condoms in 1920, and trademarked the brand in 1927. A tough battle in the courts to protect the Trojan brand effectively legitimized condoms for disease prevention.

Youngs marketed the Trojan line in pharmaceutical journals, guaranteeing the highest product quality among condom makers. In 1933 Youngs adopted machinery designed by Frederick Killian of Akron for mass production of latex condoms on a conveyor line. Latex (milky liquid tapped from rubber trees) condoms quickly emerged as viable rival to rubber products.

A real turning point, coincident with the WPA era anti-syphilis campaign by the U.S. Public Health Service and the American Social Hygiene Association, came with FDA testing of condoms. In 1937 FDA announced intent to begin inspections, which commenced in January 1938. Quickly, the leaders Schmid and Youngs rose above other brands, buoyed by their superior product and quality control. Arthur Youngs of the Trojan brand introduced a condom producing machine that did testing as an integral part of the manufacturing process.

Many condoms made by other companies, notably Texide and Dean, had an unacceptable failure rate, leading to the cessation of production by those companies between 1938 and 1941. That effectively left the field to industry giants Schmid and Youngs.

Celebrating Condom Week at the Dittrick.

Just around the corner we have a couple of events for Condom Week 2011. On Monday February 14 Science Cafe Cleveland wlll present Cloaking Cupid's Arrow: contraception and reproductive science at Great Lakes Brewing Co. I'll be talking about the history of contraception and my friend Tony Tizzano, M.D., will discuss contemporary reproductive science and technology. Join us! Drinks start at 6:30PM in the Tasting Room of GLBC at 2701 Carroll Avenue, off West 25th near the Westside Market. Program starts at 7:00PM

And earlier in the day on the 14th, tune into The Sound of Ideas on WCPN, Cleveland's NPR affiliate. Tony and I will discuss the history and science of contraception. Listen to the live audiostream on 90.3 FM beginning at 9:00AM.

Then, on Saturday February 19 Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio is hosting National Condom Week Party at the Dittrick, from 6 to 8 PM. See the PPNEO website for details.

Jim Edmonson

p.s. - there's plenty written on the condom, but not much good cultural history. Here are some exceptionally thoughtful and interesting offerings:

Joshua Gamson, "Rubber Wars: Struggles over the Condom in the United States," Journal of the History of Sexuality 1 (1990): 262-282.

Paul Jobling, "Playing Safe: The Politics of Pleasure and Gender in the Promotion of Condoms in Britain." Journal of Design History 10 (1997): 53-70.

Andrea Tone, Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America (2001), esp. Chap. 8: Condom Kings pp.183-202.

Sleeping with Uncle Sam

Sex education. For most Americans, these two simple words conjure up diverse images: the gym, the inept health teacher, the snickers, the embarrassment, and, most important, the confusion. Alexandra Lord will explore this topic at the Dittrick on Thursday January 27. Her lecture, Sleeping With Uncle Sam: Federally Funded Sex Education and the American Public documents a century long struggle to create sex education programs balancing both cultural and public health concerns. In doing so, she will explore how and why sex education -- a teenage rite of passage in America -- became such an explosive topic.

Alexandra Lord (PhD, University of Wisconsin) taught medical history and served as historian of the United States Public Health Service through 2007. In January 2008, she became the Branch Chief of the National Historic Landmarks Program, and serves on the Board of the National Council on Public History. Her latest book, Condom Nation: The U. S. Government’s Sex Education Campaign from World War I to the Age of the Internet (Johns Hopkins, 2010) won awards from the British Medical Association as the best popular book on medicine and as the best book furthering public understanding of medicine and science.

Inspired by Alexandra Lord’s visit, the Dittrick staff, in association with CIA student Stephen Buehrer, has prepared a temporary exhibit, The Art of Prevention: Venereal Disease Posters, 1935-1950 in the Castele Gallery. The U. S. Public Health Service and the privately operated American Social Hygiene Association, commissioned artists working under the WPA (Works Progress Administration) to design posters for their campaign against venereal disease. The lithographed posters, mostly produced from 1936 to 1942, were distributed by state and local boards of health, and public health and safety programs. Digital copies of posters came from the Library of Congress, the Wellcome Library, and the American Social Hygiene Association archive at the University of Minnesota. The images seen here are from the Library of Congress.

See also the online exhibit The Enemy in Your Pants. The military’s decades-long war against STDs. By Elizabeth Gettelman and Mark Murrmann.

Jim Edmonson

A 10 year-old's take on hospital stay, c.1950

In 1950, the sister of 10 year-old John Davidson was admitted to Lakewood Hospital for an appendectomy. John chronicled her stay in drawings, both real and imagined. On the front of a sheet of paper, entitled “My visitors today,” he depicted the daily routine of nurses, meals, recuperation, and visits by family and pastor. On the reverse John caricatured a far different nocturnal hospital experience, entitled “What goes on when your asleep.” In these drawings John envisioned multiple instrumental interventions, with tools more suited to workshop than hospital. John’s sister must have been amused by his imaginings, for she kept the sketches and almost a half century later they found their way into the archives at the Dittrick.

Dittrick 1993.42.2 obverse
Dittrick 1993.42.2 reverse