Forceps (2019.06.006)

Forceps (2019.06.006)

Nebraska State Tuberculosis Hospital, Dr. Burton Bancroft, Artifact, Forceps, Hemostat, Needle Holder

Metal surgical forceps with finger loops. Object is silver metal colored and shiny, and still functions as it should but has difficulty opening and closing. Object has two handles with finger loops that you can pull apart to extend the forceps and push together to close the forceps, much like a pair of scissors.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: There is information about Dr. Burton Bancroft in the Frank Museum archives, as well as in the paper accession record. AW ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forceps were originally invented to assist midwives during childbirth. Previous tools used during birth were used only to save the mother’s life should the fetus die, but forceps afforded midwives a better chance of success in delivering children alive should something go wrong during labor. Forceps themselves were invented by two French doctors operating in Great Britain during the early 1600s. These doctors were both called Peter Chamberlen, but went by Peter the Elder and Peter the Young. They invented forceps to get an edge over other midwives operating at the time. The Chamberlen brothers kept their forceps a closely-guarded secret. They went so far as to hide the forceps when not in use, transport them in a chest, blindfold mothers before opening the case, and only using them under a blanket. Because of this invention, the Chamberlen brothers had a reputation of being able to deliver most any child, and had a type of monopoly over midwifery at the time. They also continuously worked to improve the design of the forceps. Nonetheless, the youngest of the Chamberlens would sell the forceps in the late 1600s, and they soon became widespread throughout Europe with midwives, helping transform the profession into a standardized medical practice. It was noted that a doctor not properly trained with forceps tended to overuse the device and improperly deploy it, often causing more problems in the process. Michael DeBakey, an accomplished doctor, medical innovator, one of the creators of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH), and inventor of countless surgical procedures, would invent the DeBakey forceps for use during surgeries to move veins and tissue without damaging them sometime in 1950s or 1960s. Later, more doctors would invent specific types of forceps, such as Alfred Adson’s Adson forceps that are used to move neural tissues. Information gathered from: The American Surgeon (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1177/000313481508100222) The Operating Room Global (https://www.operatingroomissues.org/debakey-forceps/) JSTOR Daily (https://daily.jstor.org/why-male-midwives-concealed-the-obstetric-forceps/) Hektoen International (https://hekint.org/2017/01/27/forceps-a-brief-history/) The National Library of Medicine’s collection of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3704058/). 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.

Metal Forceps