The U.S. National Museum was reorganized on July 1, 1957, into two
units, the Natural History Museum and the Museum of History and
Technology. At the same time, and in view of the widening scope of the
Division, its more scientifically based planning, and the constantly
increasing collection with equal emphasis on all branches of the healing
arts, the Division's title was changed to the Division of Medical
Sciences--the title it still bears in 1964. With the reorganization, the
Department of Engineering and Industries, under which the Division fell
administratively, was renamed the Department of Science and Technology
of the Museum of History and Technology. It was also the first time
since its establishment in 1881 that the Division had two curators, for
on July 1, 1957, Dr. John B. Blake joined the staff.
[Illustration: Figure 19.--CURATORS JOHN B. BLAKE AND GEORGE
GRIFFENHAGEN examine the newly acquired (1957) electromagnetic,
Morton-Wimshurst-Holz Influence Machine. It was manufactured by the
Bowen Company of Providence, Rhode Island (1889). With the discovery of
x-ray, it was used for making x-ray photographs until early in the 20th
century.]
As a result of these changes, the Division was subdivided into a Section
of Pharmaceutical History and Health and a Section of Medical and Dental
History. The former was planned to encompass the collections of _materia
medica_, pharmaceutical equipment, and all material related to the
history of pharmacy, toxicology, pharmacology, and biochemistry, as well
as the Hall of Health which was opened November 2, 1957, and which
emphasizes man's progressing knowledge of his body and the functions of
its major organs.[18] The latter Section was planned to include all that
belongs to the development of surgery, medicine, dentistry, and nursing,
especially in relation to hospitals.
In October 1957, the Division acquired a collection of rare, ceramic,
drug jars which included two, 13th-century, North Syrian and Persian,
albarello-shaped, majolica jars; a 15th-century, Hispano-Moresque drug
container; and a 16th-century, Italian faience, dragon-spout ewer.
During the following two years, Curator Griffenhagen periodically toured
museums and medical and pharmaceutical institutions in this country,
South America, and Europe gathering specimens and information for the
Division and for publication, respectively. However, on June 27, 1959,
he resigned his curatorship to join the staff of the American
Pharmaceutical Association in Washington, D.C. Dr. Blake became the
curator in charge of the Division and Mr. Griffenhagen was succeeded on
September 24, 1959, by the author of this paper as associate curator in
charge of the Section of Pharmaceutical History and Health.
Dr. Blake, as curator of the Section of Medical and Dental History,
acquired a large number of valuable and varied specimens for the
Division's collections. They included optometric refracting instruments,
an early 1920's General Electric, portable, x-ray machine, the Charles
A. Lindbergh and Alexis Carrel pump (designed in 1935 to perfuse
life-sustaining fluids to the organs of the body), the Sewell heart pump
(1950) to control delivery of air pressure and suction to the pumping
mechanism, and a large and valuable collection of dental equipment
formerly at the universities of Pennsylvania and Illinois. Dr. Blake
wrote the explanatory material and supervised the design and production
of the majority of exhibits in the renovated hall of medical and dental
history. He also contributed several scholarly articles and a book (see
bibliography) on the history of the healing arts and public health in
particular. He resigned on September 2, 1961, to join the staff of the
National Library of Medicine as chief of the History of Medicine
Division, and was succeeded by the author as curator of the Division.
From the summer of 1962 to April 1964, the Division benefited from the
expert advice of Dr. Alfred R. Henderson as consultant in the
preparation and designing of the surgical and medical exhibits of the
Museum of History and Technology.
During the period from 1961 to May 1964, the Division's collections
expanded greatly through its medical, dental, and pharmaceutical
acquisitions. Specimens of antiques acquired from 1961 through 1963
numbered up to 1,539 and included gifts from leading institutions and
individual philanthropists. The scope of these gifts and acquisitions
ranges from electronic resuscitators, microscopes, x-ray equipment, and
spectacles, to patent medicines, amulets, apothecary tools, dental
instruments, and office material of practitioners.
[Illustration: Figure 20.--EXHIBIT ON SPECTACLES, LORGNETTES,
OPTOMETERS, and refraction, completed in 1960. It features a cross
section of the Division's large collection of eyeglasses. (Smithsonian
photo 47943-D.)]
In the last decade, the interest in the national endeavor for promoting
research and scholarship in the history of medicine has increased
greatly. It was most appropriate, therefore, for the Smithsonian
Institution to play host on May 2 for two sessions of the 37th annual
meeting of the American Association for the History of Medicine held in
the Washington, D.C., area from April 30 through May 2, 1964. In
welcoming the members to the morning session in the auditorium of the
new Museum of History and Technology, Frank A. Taylor, director of the
United States National Museum, expressed the feeling that the meeting of
the Association was, in a sense, a dedication of the new auditorium and
an opportunity for the Smithsonian to reaffirm its deep interest and
commitment in fostering research and furthering the appreciation of
scholarly endeavor in the history of the healing arts.