American medical museums preserve far more than old stethoscopes and surgical tools. Their collections include early anesthesia equipment, artificial hearts, strange prosthetics, electrotherapy machines, wartime devices, and experimental treatments that reveal just how dramatically medicine has changed.
An ether inhaler from the dawn of anesthesia
This ether inhaler is associated with William T. G. Morton and the early public use of surgical anesthesia in the 1840s. Devices like this helped transform surgery by making it possible to perform procedures without forcing patients to remain fully conscious through the pain.
A 1947 defibrillator prototype
This early defibrillator prototype is associated with surgeon Claude S. Beck, who helped pioneer electrical defibrillation of the human heart. Compared with today’s compact machines, its size and exposed components show how experimental the technology still was.
The Jarvik-7 artificial heart prototype
The Jarvik-7 became one of the most famous artificial-heart designs of the twentieth century. The Smithsonian preserves this prototype as part of the history of attempts to replace one of the body’s most essential organs with a mechanical device.
A Civil War surgical kit
Civil War surgeons depended on compact instrument cases that could travel with military hospitals and field units. Sets like this contained the tools needed for procedures performed under extremely difficult battlefield conditions.
Mary Edwards Walker’s pocket surgical kit
This small surgical kit belonged to physician Mary Edwards Walker and dates to the Civil War era. Its compact design reflects the need for medical instruments that could be carried easily while treating patients in military settings.
An X-ray machine from medicine’s new era
X-rays were discovered in 1895, and physicians quickly began experimenting with the new technology. This early machine shows how rapidly hospitals and medical manufacturers tried to turn the discovery into a practical diagnostic tool.
A portable X-ray machine reaches the bedside
Portable X-ray equipment allowed doctors to bring imaging technology closer to patients who could not easily be moved. This museum photograph documents an early bedside setup at Walter Reed and shows how bulky mobile medical equipment once was.
The Pneolator delivered emergency oxygen
The M.S.A. Pneolator was designed to provide respiratory support and oxygen in emergency situations. Its controls could be adjusted for different patients, making the machine an early example of portable respiratory equipment.
The iron lung became a symbol of polio
Negative-pressure respirators, widely known as iron lungs, helped patients breathe when paralysis weakened their respiratory muscles. During the polio era, these large machines became some of the most recognizable medical devices in American hospitals.
A workshop for making artificial teeth
Dental prosthetics once required a surprising collection of specialized hand tools and laboratory equipment. This set reflects the detailed work needed to manufacture replacements before modern digital dentistry and automated fabrication.
Tools used to fit artificial eyes
Creating an ocular prosthesis involved much more than simply making something eye-shaped. Specialized forceps, implants, conformers, and fitting tools helped physicians and technicians prepare the eye socket and position the prosthesis.
The equipment behind handmade artificial eyes
Artificial eyes were once shaped, colored, and finished largely by hand. The tools preserved in this collection include materials used to reproduce the appearance of the iris, sclera, and surrounding details as closely as possible.
A conformer shaped the healing eye socket
An ocular conformer could be placed temporarily after surgery to help maintain the shape of the eye socket during healing. The device prepared the area for a later prosthetic eye while helping prevent unwanted tissue changes.
A specialized set for myeloscopy
This group of instruments was assembled for procedures involving examination of the spinal canal. The specialized shapes and fittings show how individual medical procedures often required their own dedicated tool sets.
A Stryker electrosurgical set
This military electrosurgical equipment combined a powered motor, flexible shaft, and foot controls. It reflects the growing twentieth-century use of electrically driven instruments to make surgical work faster and more precise.
A machine built just to measure the wrist
This apparatus was designed to measure extension and flexion of the wrist. Machines like it turned rehabilitation into something that could be documented with numbers instead of relying only on a physician’s visual judgment.
Electricity becomes physical therapy
Electrical stimulation became a recurring feature of early physical therapy and rehabilitation. Museum photographs from the World War I era show patients connected to machines that physicians hoped could stimulate weakened muscles and support recovery.
Slow sinusoidal current enters the clinic
This treatment involved attaching electrodes to the body and applying controlled electrical current. The equipment looks unusual today, but electrotherapy became an established part of rehabilitation practice in many early twentieth-century hospitals.
Measuring blood pressure was once a production
Blood-pressure testing is routine today, but early setups could involve much more visible equipment than a modern automatic cuff. This preserved photograph documents an earlier stage in the development of one of medicine’s most familiar measurements.
A dental drill powered with improvised parts
This wartime dental setup shows how medical personnel sometimes had to improvise equipment from whatever was available. The powered drill was assembled using mechanical components and a battery when conventional dental machinery was not practical.
The aeroplane splint held arms in midair
The aeroplane splint kept an injured arm elevated and extended away from the body. Its large framework could look extreme, but maintaining a specific position was important for some injuries and reconstructive procedures.
A mechanical prosthetic arm
Early upper-limb prostheses relied heavily on mechanical joints, straps, cables, and body movement. This preserved example shows how designers tried to restore useful motion long before modern electronic prosthetic systems became available.
A lower-leg prosthesis from a military hospital
This lower-limb prosthesis came from a military hospital during the World War II era. Its construction reflects a period when prosthetic workshops relied on careful fitting and mechanical craftsmanship to restore mobility to injured service members.
A prosthetic leg made in captivity
One of the most remarkable objects in the collection is a prosthetic leg made from available materials while its user was a prisoner of war in the Philippines. The device shows how necessity could force patients and caregivers to improvise medical technology under extraordinary conditions.
An oxygen apparatus built for horses
Chemical warfare created medical problems for animals as well as soldiers during World War I. This Dräger apparatus was designed to deliver oxygen to horses affected by gas exposure, producing one of the strangest pieces of respiratory equipment in the museum collection.
Gas masks protected both soldiers and horses
Military horses faced the same chemical threats as the people working beside them. Specialized protective masks had to accommodate the very different anatomy of a horse while still filtering contaminated air.
Experimental masks designed to stop plague
Before modern respiratory protection standards, researchers experimented with a wide range of mask designs intended to reduce exposure to infectious disease. These plague-prevention masks preserve a moment when scientists were still testing what effective protection should look like.
An artificial shoulder from the 1890s
This reconstruction represents an early artificial shoulder implanted by surgeon Jules-Émile Péan in the 1890s. The attempt was remarkably ambitious for its time and foreshadowed the sophisticated joint replacements that later became routine.
A hand prosthesis demonstrated by a wounded soldier
This museum photograph documents a mechanical hand prosthesis used by a service member who had lost a hand during World War II. The device belongs to a long history of efforts to restore grip, movement, and independence after traumatic injury.
