[photographs, medical] Six albumen photographs of mobile field hospital chests (surgical/medical/pharmaceutical)

[no place of publication stated]: [no publisher stated], 3rd Qtr 19th century. Good. A grouping of six albumen images. Each image is roughly 4 1/4 x 2 7/8 inches in horizontal or vertical orientations. Inked in black on each verso is "Cont(?) by Dr Nicholaysen" or "by Dr. Nicholaysen" Inked in red on each recto is "Contr. Photo No. 1813" through "Contr Photo 1818" (one number per image). Additionally the objects in the images are marked in black ink from 1-9 (skipping 5 in the numbering). Overall image fading with staining, ink marks, and fading. These images came to us as part of a very large, now dispersed archive with an overall medical theme. Already (truncated) fragmentary when we purchased them, we have arranged them by sequence numbers and theme.

This set of six images documents a variety of surgical/medical/surgical cases. Too large to be conveniently carried by an individual they are likely something that might have been used in a mobile field hospital. Similar cases appear installed in a horse drawn wagon setup (see our inventory number 28960). We are not experts, but they appear to be American civil war era.

Image 1813 shows a cased surgery kit with drawer insert which includes some trepanning tools. This kit would have occupied one "drawer" in a larger surgical case. Image 1814 shows two kits which appear to be for bone cutting/surgery with surgical saws of at least three types and various other implements. Images 1815 is a large chest with hinged top and several drawers which pull out to include medical tools. Image 1816 shows another portable chest which apparently contains liquids of various types in large bottles. Image 1817 shows yet another portable chest, this one with what appears to be pills, and a variety of pullout drawers and other bottles (perhaps for dry ingredients). Finally image 1818 shows another portable chest that appears full of bandages and other preparations.

Dr. Nicholaysen may be one Dr. Julius Nicholaysen, a Norwegian professor of medicine:

"He finished his secondary education in 1849 and graduated from the Royal Frederick University with the cand.med. degree in 1856. He worked in Christiania, Kragerø and Møre before becoming a surgeon for army companies in Stockholm (1857-1860) and Christiania (1862). He was hired at Rikshospitalet in 1863; from 1867 to 1870 he was a research fellow at the university (including thirteen months in the United States). He was a professor at the university and chief physician at Rikshospitalet, until retiring from both posts in 1908. His special field was surgery, but he was also a prominent scholar in dentistry. He was the first in Norway to perform ovarectomy (1866), resection in the knee (1881) and resection in the bowel (1885). He also contributed significantly to the introduction of antiseptic, later aseptic methods in surgery. He chaired the Norwegian Medical Society in 1880, received an honorary degree at the University of Copenhagen in 1879 and was a fellow in the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1875. He was decorated as a Knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1889; upgraded to Commander in 1897" (Wikipedia). (Inventory #: 28952)