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.
Scents & Sensibility: Awakening the Fashionable History of Victorian-Era Smelling Salts
Fainting at the least hint of shock became one way that women could show their delicate and frail nature; to swoon was not only an accepted social cue, but also downright ladylike. Coupled with the prevailing corset fashion of the era, which shifted ribs, constricted lungs, and compressed organs, this created a perfect recipe for a social fainting phenomenon.
Heritage Hour: Rockwood and Early Mental Health Treatment in Canada
On Thursday, December 7th, 2023 the Museum of Health Care's Curator, Rowena McGowan delivered a talk for the City of Kingston's Heritage Hour. The topic was the evolution of mental health care in Canada with a focus on Rockwood Asylum.
Today is GivingTuesday!
This #GivingTuesday, we are asking for your support as we work to revitalize the way we tell the story of Canada’s nursing history and change the focus from nursing education to the skilled and often challenging work of a professional nurse.
GivingTuesday Campaign 2023
This GivingTuesday, we are asking for your support as we work to revitalize the way we tell the story of Canada’s nursing history and change the focus from nursing education to the skilled and often challenging work of a professional nurse.
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.