Drugs and Disease, Doctors and Dentists The Kelley House Museum opens 2018 with an exhibit on the history of medical practice, doctors, disease and hospitals of the Mendocino Coast circa 1870-1950. Photographs and artifacts, like an early X-ray (then called radiograph) of Augie Heeser's foot, are among the exhibit items. Medicine on the Mendocino Coast: “Say Ahh . . .” opens to the public on Friday, [...]
by Sarah Nathe, Kelley House Museum Board secretary Two weeks ago at the opening of the new Kelley House exhibit, “Medicine on the Mendocino Coast: Say Ahh…”, I was looking at pioneer druggist C.O. Packard’s prescription ledger from 1882 and wondering about some of the potions and pills he dispensed. I noticed a “Morph. Sulph.” prescription for a Mrs. Johnson, a “Cocaine Wine” prescription for a [...]
Is the practice of medicine an art, a science, a business or a combination of all three? As in other parts of the country, the Mendocino Coast experienced an evolution of medical practice: from something which was in the hands of regular folks at home (mostly women); to something primarily in the hands of doctors (mostly male), nurses (mostly female), and a variety of technicians. Along [...]
Consider events in the lifespan of Mendocino pioneer Edwards C. Williams as an example of how much times have changed, and yet how we are able to relate much of the past to our own lives. When E. C. Williams joined the New York Volunteers in 1846, he answered the call to fight what few today would argue was a just war. California belonged to Mexico [...]
Drugs and Disease, Doctors and Dentists The Kelley House Museum opens 2018 with an exhibit on the history of medical practice, doctors, disease and hospitals of the Mendocino Coast circa 1870-1950. Photographs and artifacts, like an early X-ray (then called radiograph) of Augie Heeser's foot, are among the exhibit items. Medicine on the Mendocino Coast: “Say Ahh . . .” opens to the public on Friday, [...]
People living before the advent of penicillin and other antibiotics or even antiviral medications, which we take for granted, were no strangers to death. However, the influenza pandemic, which came in the wake of the end of the First World War, occurred on a scale so devastating that it took more victims than had the Great War itself. As we cross the threshold of 2018, the [...]