Medical Vial Case (2019.06.004)

Medical Vial Case (2019.06.004)

Nebraska State Tuberculosis Hospital, Medical Case, Medical Vial Case, Artifact, Dr. Burton Bancroft

Small, black, hard-case medical case used for transporting vials. Interior has gold fabric lining on lid. There is a small, red, inscription on the interior lid that says "Lilly"

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: There is information about Dr. Burton Bancroft in the Frank Museum archives, as well as in the paper accession record. AW ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As far back as ancient Egypt (350 BCE), doctors made house calls and in various records and artifacts of the time point towards doctors using specific cases to carry medicine in their bags. In the 1700s and 1800s, medical cases began to be made out of leather and brass, with silk to keep the case’s contents from breaking. This was because doctors often made house calls by riding their horses/buggies to the house, and given the bumpy and rough ride the medical contents needed protection. Somewhat popular as well was the medicine chest, which contained a wide range of basic medicines and ingredients, as well as scales and weights, and it was up to the doctor to mix the medicines and ingredients to get the specific medicine they needed. Even by the 1960s, nearly all medicine was in glass bottles, hence the continued need for protection, as if a glass bottle broke the medicine inside was useless, and,according to one source, the smell would be “appalling”. As vaccines became evermore popular in the 1910s and 1920s, some vial cases were fitted to carry needles and syringes as well. Some were also fitted to carry basic medical instruments as well. Oftentimes, the standards for vial cases and their contents of a given time were set by militaries, with those standards made their way into the civilian world. With that in mind, vial cases were particularly popular on naval and civilian ships, given the fact that ships could be out at sea for some time ship doctors needed to carry all types of medicines. Innovations made in the field of naval medicine storage would also make their way into the civilian world. There seemed to be a debate during the time on whether medical vial cases should be easy accessible (so doctors could get to the medicine quickly in an emergency) or hard to access (to prevent tampering and theft of the medicine). Information gathered from: The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ Australian Family Physician journal (https://www.racgp.org.au/afp/2016/september/a-historical-account-of-the-doctors-bag/) The National Library of Medicine’s collection of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3255184/) Johnson & Johnson (https://ourstory.jnj.com/timeline) The Western Illinois Museum (https://www.wimuseum.org/doctor-making-house-a-collection-of-doctors-bags/) The East Carolina University Digital Collections (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/14350) Information compiled by Logan Osmera

ca. 1950s

For all objects in accession # 2019.06: Doctor's bag, medical equipment, medicine, and other items all originally belonged to Dr. Burton Bancroft who came to Kearney is 1956 and was the first trained surgeon in the community, according to John Bancroft- Dr. Burton Bancroft's son who found the the doctor's bag in a closet. The bag contained all of the items within accession record #2019.06. Dr. Bancroft occasionally provided aid to patients at the Nebraska State Hospital for Tuberculosis in Kearney, NE.

Medical Vial Case