MUSEUM BLOG
MARF 2023 Lecture Recording and Manuscript Now Available
Originally recorded on November 19th, 2023, Jessica's Sealey's lecture Monstrous Instruments: The Vaginal Speculum and the Contagious Diseases Acts Repeal Movement is now available for viewing on the Museum of Health Care's YouTube Channel.
MHC featured in The HISTORY Channel documentary series Our War
The Museum of Health Care at Kingston is proud to announce that on Saturday, November 11th at 9pm ET/PT it will be featured in an episode of The HISTORY® Channel’s Original docu-series, Our War.
"Unfeeling Glass and Steel Telescopes": The Speculum and Pelvic Exam in Repeal Propaganda
The notorious advocate for repeal of the CD Acts, Reverend Robert Eli Hooppell, was known for his vivid descriptions of the speculum examinations at repeal meetings in the North of England, even going so far as to display the instrument itself to shocked crowds of working-class men and women. This practice was considered particularly distasteful by the repeal leader Josephine Butler, who described it as “needlessly and grossly indecent,” repelling “many good men” from their cause
2023 Margaret Angus Research Fellowship Lecture
This project brings together a history of the object with examples drawn from the Museum of Health Care’s collection, alongside a critical examination of repealer writing on Contagious Diseases Acts’ medical examinations and the instrument of the speculum.
"A Thing in Petticoats" Nurses and the Contagious Diseases Acts of Britain
The “thing in petticoats” the author describes is an unnamed female nurse who attended patients and aided the military physician at the Flora Lane inspection office. Reportedly, as the widow “entered the surgeon’s den, weeping,” the attending nurse (or “thing in petticoats”) told her “not ‘to take it to heart so.’” While it may appear that this particular nurse was being singled out for her cruelty and dismissiveness toward her patients, the article in its entirety presents a surprisingly scathing attack on all the female nurses who participated in the CD Acts medical examinations.
Escape the Museum: A Special Halloween Event
Join the Museum of Health Care and Murney Tower Museum for an all-ages Halloween event…if you dare!Explore both museums and follow the clues to escape. To earn your prize, you must be awarded a key at each site. Will you be lucky enough to escape? Or will you be trapped inside like some poor souls from times gone by?
MHC newest partner in exciting Ancient DNA Centre project
Where did smallpox and its many less famous cousins come from?Molecular anthropologists Dr. Ana Duggan and Dr. Hendrik Poinar from the Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University are working on answering this exact question. The Museum of Health Care is delighted to be McMaster University’s latest partner in this exciting new research project.
Nineteenth-Century Gynaecology: A History in Objects
the landscape of gynaecology changed dramatically during the nineteenth century. Along with experimentation, research, and increasing knowledge came innovation in techniques and technologies until, for better or worse, the Victorian gynaecologist had a veritable arsenal of tools at their disposal. Drawing primarily from the Museum of Health Care’s collection, this blog post examines some of the medical instruments that helped change the face of gynaecology in the nineteenth century, many of which are still in use in some variation today.