Surgical Kit
Historical Collections at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library
Eleven-piece surgical instrument kit
Used by Clarence Arthur Earle until his death in 1937
Velvet-lined wooden case contains catlins, scalpels, tenon saw, tenaculums, forceps, and brass screw tourniquet
Donated to Emory University by Walter C. Earle, c. 1937
Physicians in the early 1900s, including Dr. Clarence Arthur Earle, a country practitioner in Des Plaines, Illinois, often carried medical bags and surgical kits as they traveled to their patients. In many cases, diagnosis and treatment took place at the patient’s home, in a private office, or in the case of the American Civil War, in the field. This “medicine on the move” required doctors to purchase and maintain their own surgical equipment.
At the time of Dr. Earle’s practice in the early 1900s, hospitals were primarily charitable institutions but with increased urbanization in the twentieth century, hospitals transformed into prestigious institutions where not only treatment occurred but teaching. As a result, the nature of how physicians practiced and engaged with patients changed as well.
Consider the items and the context in which they were used. In what ways has medicine evolved?