Introduction

The Medical History Collection

The Medical History Museum and its collection were formally established in 1967 in conjunction with the newly established Department of Medical History, under the Professorship of Kenneth Russell. The Museum itself was opened at this time with generous funding from the Wellcome Trust, London in support of study and research in medical history. The collection at this time consisted of a small but well selected range of medical artifacts which Professor Russell had been gathering together for some time, with a view to opening a museum.

The Museum collection is the oldest, finest and most comprehensive of its type attached to a medical school in Australia, and continues a longstanding tradition of leading medical schools across the world, to develop these historical resources. Over the intervening thirty-five years the collection has grown, through the donation of documents, photographs, instruments and records, from medical graduates, families and institutions from in and around Melbourne. Until recently, the collection mainly reflected the teaching of medicine at the University of Melbourne and its clinical schools, and the achievements of its graduates from the 1860s to the present day.

In 1971, the Medical History Museum received a further donation from the Welcome Trust, of a 19th century Savory and Moore pharmacy from London, complete with fittings, drug jars and equipment necessary for the compounding of medicines, as well as a comprehensive collection of early Burroughs Wellcome & Co patent medicines of that period.

In 1994, with the acquisition of the Australian Medical Association museum and library, the scope of the Medical History Museum collection broadened, and now consists of over 4000 items covering over 400 years of the history of western medicine, though still with its greatest strengths in the history of medical teaching and practice in Victoria.

The Museum, with its permanent and temporary exhibition space, provides an opportunity to display parts of the collection selected for exhibitions on a wide variety of health and medical issues, and provides postgraduate students the opportunity to showcase their work in these exhibitions. The permanent exhibition space displays the historic miscroscope and microtome collections, as well as amputation sets, trephining, blood letting and other early instruments used before the introduction of anaesthesia and antiseptic surgery. The handsome ornate walnut cabinets in which these items are displayed were made by the early Melbourne cabinet maker Charles Beecham for the 1881 International Exhibition, and are heritage items themselves.

The Medical History Museum Collection is fundamentally a research collection, providing local and overseas postgraduate students with the primary resources for their work. This online catalogue will facilitate access to rich new sources of material, not widely known about till now. The Museum also supports the teaching programs for students undertaking Advanced Medical Science under the new medical curriculum.

The collection retains close links with the medical history library and rare medical books collection, and provides links to other medical archives and collections in Melbourne through this website, revealing the strength of resources in Melbourne, for historical medical research.

The breadth and quality of the collection is demonstrated by the following selection of items from amongst the major categories within the collection.

Archival photographs

• Professor G.B.Halford, first professor appointed to the Medical School, directing medical students in anatomical dissection, 1864
• Photograph of the first women admitted to the medical course, 1887
• Annual photographs of medical graduates from 1877 - 1931
• A collection of early x-ray photographs using opaque vascular dyes, taken by Alfred Fryett in the Anatomy Department, c.1900
• Photographs of staff, grounds and buildings of the university and medical school
• Photomontages of delegates at early medical congresses

Notebooks and personal papers from students, lecturers, and notable medical identities

• Testimonials and other correspondence, student's lecture notebooks, diaries, treatment records and charts, prescription books

Published papers

• Original articles by notable doctors, public health reports, special magazine supplements for university anniversaries

Ceremonial artefacts

• Academic certificates, illuminated addresses, commemorative medals and presentation gifts

Surgical instruments

• Amputation sets - from pre-anaesthetic days
• Postmortem and dissection kits
• Lister spray and early anaesthetic equipment
• Boxed sets of syringes, forceps and scalpels

Physicians instruments

• 19th century medicine chests with original bottles and fittings, including those for homeopathic treatment
• Bleeding, cupping and purging instruments
• Instruments for all areas of medicine, dating back over 150 years, including auriscopes, ophthalmoscopes, stethoscopes, cystoscopes, speculums, laryngoscopes

Military medical kits

• Saline infusion kits from Boer War, and later
• Direct blood transfusion kits and food ration cans from World War Two
• Surgical field dressing kit, bandages from World War One

Scientific equipment and machines

• Henry Grayson's Microruling Engine c.1894
• Electrocardiographs dating from 1920s to 1950s
• Magneto Electro Machines for treating nervous conditions
• William Stone's early x-ray tubes, developed at Melbourne University 1896-1897

Public health and social history items

• Family medical books and items for the household treatment of minor wounds, instructions for bandaging, invalid feeding, childhood illnesses
• A range of quackery items
• Vaccination equipment, infant welfare equipment such as baby scales and feeding bottles

Laboratory equipment

• Penicillin culture bottles, sterilizing equipment, materials for slide preparation

Operating theatre equipment

• Small operating table, stool, trays, autoclave, anaesthetic equipment etc

Wide range of manufacturers catalogues for:

• Surgical, medical, hospital remedial and scientific equipment

Reinstalled nineteenth century Savory & Moore Pharmacy from London, complete with:

• Original fittings, including pharmacy jars, scales, tincture press, pill rolling machine, mortar and pestles
• Prescription registers from South Melbourne Pharmacy, dating from 1890s
• Drug jars from Palmer's Pharmacy, Ballarat established 1850s
• Wide range of early 1900s patent medicines by Burroughs Wellcome & Co.

Ann Brothers