Stories from the stores

Curatorial collecting – new radioactive tracer machine

January 10th, 2012 | by | climate science, medicine, new acquisitions

Jan
10

One of the best parts of a curator’s job is collecting new objects. It can sometimes feel like a daunting task but occasionally serendipitous circumstances lead to a great acquisition.

A member of staff from GE Healthcare was visiting the Science and Art of Medicine gallery of the 5th floor of the museum and noticed that their company had recently developed a new updated version of a piece of kit. Fortunately for us, they offered us a model for the Museum’s collections.

Model of a Technetium-99 generator by GE Healthcare

Model of a Technetium-99 generator by GE Healthcare (© GE Healthcare)

The generator produces a radioactive version of the element Technetium-99, used as a tracer in the body. Radioactive tracers are used in nuclear medicine. This is the use of radioactive isotopes to diagnose and treat illness. The radioactive element is injected, swallowed or inhaled and the progress is tracked using a gamma camera or a PET scanner. The radiation received from a tracer is comparable to that of an X-ray.

PET Scanner ( Wellcome Images )

Non-radioactive tracers have also been used to image the body. Early versions of tracers include a barium meal drink used with X-rays to show up the guts.

Barium 'Shadow Meal', 1981-595/1 (Science Museum, London)

One of the most commonly used tracers is Technetium-99. One of the problems is that Technetium-99 has a half-life of only 6 hours. So it is transported with a longer lasting isotope Molybdenum-99. Once at the hospital, the isotopes can be separated. This is done by injecting a saline or salt solution which leaves the molybdenum absorbed on the aluminium columns inside.

The designers at GE Healthcare worked in collaboration with hospital staff including radiographers to find out their needs and come up with a design solution. The model has won design awards from the Design Business Association and has also reduced its carbon footprint in the process.

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New Year Honours List

January 3rd, 2012 | by | chemistry, medicine, meta, women in science

Jan
03

Happy 2012 to everyone! The New Year Honours List has been announced and some will be starting off 2012 with new titles or new letters after their names. A number of scientists and medical researchers were honoured this year. Unsurprisingly the Science Museum’s medical collection has its fair share of sirs and dames as well as OBEs and Orders of Merit.

Artificial leg, Poland, 1940 ( Science Museum, London )

Arthur Weston made a number of artificial prostheses while imprisoned in Stalag VIIIB/344 (Lamsdorf) during the Second World War. This is just one example made from salvaged materials. Weston later became an OBE (Officer of the British Empire).

Sir James Reid's medicine chest ( Science Museum, London )

Sir James Reid (1849-1923) was personal physician to Queen Victoria. For his services he was knighted in 1895 and would also attend to the health of King Edward VII and King George V. He was also a trusted confidant and recommended that Joseph Lister become a peer.

Dr Mary Scharlieb's gown, hood, mortar board, 1888 ( Science Museum, London )

Dr Mary Scharlieb (1845-1930) was a pioneering female physician and awarded a knighthood in 1926 for her work in medicine and services to public causes. She served on the royal commission on venereal diseases from 1913 to 1916 and was one of the first female magistrates.

Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-94) was awarded the prestigious and exclusive Order of Merit in 1965 to add to her 1964 Nobel Prize for ”her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances”. The Order of Merit is a group of 24 individuals of great achievement in the fields of the arts, learning, literature and science. Hodgkin was only the second woman to be part of the exclusive group - the first was Florence Nightingale.

Molecular model of penicillin by Dorothy M Crowfoot Hodgkin, England, 1945 ( Science Museum, London )

I wonder what 2012 holds for science and medicine and just who will be honoured in 12 months time…

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Numbering objects

October 13th, 2011 | by | meta, your questions

Oct
13

Have you ever noticed on exhibition labels, the small, sometimes non-sensical number that follows the blurb about an object? These numbers are vital to help us find out what the object is and locate it on our database. With a collection of over 200,000 objects, on three different sites and around 95% in storage we certainly need all the help we can get.

Blythe House storage ( © Science Museum / Science & Society )

When objects arrive at the museum they are  assigned a temporary number. Many different systems have been used over the years using an assortment of numbers and letters. Once all of the paperwork has been done and dusted and the object is formally acquired it gets its own unique number. An example is the best way to demonstrate.

Tomograph, 1950-1959 ( Science Museum, London )

This tomograph is 1998-15 – it was acquired in 1998 and was the 15th object that year to be acquired.

All new acquisitions are now photographed on arrival, so there is a permanent record which can be used for reference later on or for use in exhibitions or catalogues. With our digitisation projects such as Ingenious and Brought to Life we are trying to get as much of our collections photographed so we can share the brilliant stuff that is in our stores.

The whole collections database is now available online.

Before the digital age, all acquisition records were paper based. The earliest inventory number in the Science Museum’s collections is 1857-3 – a 1:4 model of James Nasmyth’s direct-action steam hammer. Information was catalogued on Form 100 cards that looked like this:

Form 100 for James Nasmyth’s model of a steam action hammer

Form 100 for James Nasmyth’s model of a steam action hammer

From time to time, objects do get de-accessioned and go through a rigorous process to ensure the objects go to good homes. Each object is debated, condition checked and when approved its transferred, sometimes to another museum. Most recently a series of tractors were transferred to Bassetlaw Museum in Nottinghamshire.

A tractor that has recently been transferred to Bassetlow Museum

A tractor that has recently been transferred to Bassetlow Museum

Thanks to Chris Jones for inspiring this post!

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Caroline Matthews – a medical woman of mystery

September 6th, 2011 | by | medicine, meta, women in science

Sep
06

In the Wellcome medical collections, there are lots of relics relating to famous people, some of which have featured on this blog. Many of them are from the great men of medicine and science, Joseph Lister, Louis Pasteur, as well as military and naval men, Nelson, Napoleon and Wellington.

In the Wellcome Library, only one woman’s name made the inscription in the Reading Room: Florence Nightingale.

Reading Room, Wellcome Library ( Wellcome Images )

Not so with the collections though. During one visit to the stores I came across a curious item: Khaki haversack, belonging to Dr. Caroline Matthews. Intrigued, I started searching through Wellcome Images.

Caroline Matthews ( Wellcome Images )

So just who was Dr Caroline Matthews (1878-1927)?

After graduating from Edinburgh Medical College for Women in 1903, Dr Matthews spent most of her time on the continent. We are fortunate enough to have some of her medals for her services during the Messina Earthquake in Italy, 1908 and with the Italian Red Cross.

During the Balkan War of 1912-13, she was war correspondent for the Sphere, and held the rank of surgeon in the Montenegro army and was also awarded a medal for her services.

Some of Dr Caroline Mathews' medals

Some of Dr Caroline Mathews' medals ( Science Museum / Selina Hurley )

Dr Matthews wrote Experiences of a Woman Doctor in Serbia, published by Mills and Boon in 1916, in the middle of the First World War or the ‘Great Upheaval’ as Caroline called it.

The book recounts her journeys through Serbia with the Scottish Women’s Unit, her time as a Prisoner of War and her journey back to London in 1915. Quite possibly my favourite part of the book is her account of stocking up on supplies, with her “English RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) ‘Tabloid’ case on which to rely.”  Tabloid was the brand name of Burroughs, Wellcome & Co. Maybe she carried her supplies in the haversack, now sitting in the Science Museum stores?

Khaki haversack, belonging to Dr. Caroline Matthews

Khaki haversack, belonging to Dr. Caroline Matthews ( Science Museum / Selina Hurley )

I’ve been trying to work out why this material is in the collection. It was acquired from a private collection, just five months after her death. I feel a part 2 to this blog coming along…..

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75 years of the Wellcome Trust

July 25th, 2011 | by | medicine

Jul
25

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the death of Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853-1936). As part of his will, the Wellcome Trust was founded. The Trust is now the largest independent funder of medical research in the UK. 

Henry Wellcome, 1906 ( Wellcome Images )

 Henry Wellcome was a prolific collector of all things medical.

“Medicine has a history which has touched every phase of life and art and is to a large extent, bound up with records of human existence from earliest times.” – H. Wellcome

On his death there were over a million objects in his collection. Here at the Science Museum, we are privileged to look after some 100,000 objects from the Wellcome collection while the remainder were dispersed to museums on the four corners of the globe.

While it would be impossible to pick just one favourite object (mine changes on a weekly basis), I’ve done a survey of the medical curators’ office and here’s what we’ve come up with….

Amulet and charm to protect against plague, 1690-1710 ( Science Museum, London )

Not only a stunning object to look at, this amulet is covered with religious symbols and saints. Its one of the many religious items in the collection, a side to the Wellcome collection many are surprised to see. Religion and faith is just one response to epidemics of plague, alongside medical treatments and theories of disease.

Claxton ear cap, 1930s ( Science Museum, London )

Worn by babies to prevent ‘ugly ears’, the Claxton ear cap is an object just within living memory. What makes this object so appealing? It’s all about the body beautiful and how attitudes change rapidly over time.

And for something completely different, which you may remember from an earlier post. Food is an essential part of the human experience of life and death.

Ship's biscuit, 1875 ( Science Museum, London )

And finally, the thing Wellcome was famous for, his pharmaceutical company, Burroughs Wellcome & Co. These are just two of the many medicine chests Wellcome donated to explorers, politicians and celebrities of the day for advertising.

Medicine chests used on Everest expeditions, 1920s ( Science Museum, London )

To celebrate the medical curators will be giving free tours of the Science and Art of Medicine gallery on the 5th floor of the museum. Click here for more information.

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