MUSEUM BLOG
Explore our blog to learn about pieces from Canada’s largest collection of medical artifacts, discover the lesser-known history of health care, or hear about all of the exciting developments at the Canadian Museum of Health Care.
History of Health: Why is it important?
Jane and John Smith born in Kingston in 1810 and 1812, respectively, had a life expectancy of forty years. Jane and John Jones born in Kingston in 2009 and 2011, respectively, look forward to a life expectancy of eighty years. What accounts for this striking difference?
Family Activity Packs: free fun without an appointment
Throughout my summer working at the Museum of Health Care, I have developed a set of Family Activity Packs. My intention with this project was to create free, age-appropriate experiences for families who casually visit the Museum.
Kingston Museums Summer Staff Round Robin
For the third year in a row, members of the Kingston Association of Museums, Galleries and Historic Sites were invited to participate in a Round Robin Professional Development day.
A Brief History of Isolation and Infectious Disease
Contagious disease has challenged society throughout human history. Quarantine and isolation was practiced in response to the pandemics of bubonic plague and cholera, beginning in the Middle Ages.In the 18th and 19th centuries, smallpox led to smallpox hospitals in some large urban communities.
Interview with Former Curator Paul Robertson
After seven years with the Museum, former Curator Paul Robertson has decided to move on. The Museum of Health Care thanks Paul for his many years of innovative, exciting curatorial work and wishes him all the best in his new position. Before his departure, we conducted an interview with Paul.
Thank you for your Patronage to our Hall of Honour Exhibits at Kingston General Hospital
Over the past twenty years the Museum of Health Care has created exhibits for the Kingston General Hospital’s Hall of Honour. Recently KGH staff is working on a new redesign of this area and as part of that design process asked the museum to remove the exhibits for construction and carpet removal due to begin in July 2011.
Artificial Placenta Project
The Museum of Health Care receives a wide variety of gift offers over the course of a year. Many of these donations relate to healthcare themes more generally, but in special cases, some document the careers of individual practitioners.
Fenwick Operating Theatre: a life-saving surgery in Edwardian Kingston
At the heart of this story is young William Benjamin Stalker, who was born in 1891. The clinical details of his misadventure and life-saving surgery are preserved in the surgeon’s report detailing the boy’s accident and medical treatment in the January 1902 Kingston Medical Quarterly.
Funding Success for Museum Collection
We are excited to announce that Ontario’s Museums and Technology Fund has granted $15,000 to the Museum of Health Care for the development of a new feature on our website entitled “From the Collection”. To be developed over the next year, this page will include a series of short illustrated profiles for various objects, images, and documents drawn from the MHC collections.
Early Penicillin Sample Comes to Collection
Curators are always excited when they make a “find”, especially when that find more or less just arrives at our doorstep: an ampoule containing some of the first experimental penicillin produced in Canada!