Treasurely finds at the warehouse

This photo shows what the Historical Collections guys came across in a wooden footlocker/trunk at the warehouse. It's about 3/4 filled with boxed paraffin blocks that appear to date, based on the label, from the late nineteenth century. The boxes for each tissue sample are marked with a diagnosis, representative examples of which include bubonic plague, yaws, variola, syphilis, Leishmaniasis, and acute pancreatitis.

The labels on the boxes associate the collection with Dr. B.C. Crowell, and include a catalog number and a case number. The boxes may be from three different collections:

1 of BC Crowell
1 of people w/ Hispanic names in white boxes
1 in boxes w/ typed labels from American College of Surgeons.

It's still under investigation as to exactly what they are.

I hate flies

Liz was in the archives today, looking at some of our original medical illustrations in preparation for her class on doing, um, medical illustrations. You might think we know every scrap of paper we have in the archives but that's just not the case. I know for a fact that even Mike doesn't know everything. That's just so refreshing to say.

Anyway, she found two pen-and-ink drawings made by the Medical Illustration Service for disease prevention that I'd never seen before. The originals are much better than what's reproduced here, but they're a great example of one kind of work the Medical Museum illustrators did.

Typhoid Mary prepares food

From the barnyard to your plate