Dr. Mary Edwards Walker’s pocket surgical kit
Dr. Walker was the first female surgeon in the U.S. Army, serving during the Civil War.
She was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1865 by President Johnson, and remains the only woman to have ever won it, to this date. Interestingly, this high honor was awarded to her (and even had a bill passed in order to make her eligible) in order to recognize her service to the country…while making sure that she didn’t receive an army commission in retirement.
Indeed, she made less as a pensioner than the widows of most officers did, but she saw the greater honor of her Medal, wearing it every day until her death in 1917.
Walker also campaigned as an abolitionist (prior to the war), prohibitionist, and an advocate for dress reform, citing women’s clothing as “immodest and unwieldy”. She was arrested several times in the late 1800s for “impersonating a man”, because of her trousers and top hat.
Reference:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_325.html
http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/walker.htm
Images via National Museum of Health and Medicine
What an array of tools! This reminds me a question I had reading your earlier post about surviving a heart attack -- what tools and drugs would you recommend one to have at home, just in case? I'm sure comprehensive list could not be created by a single person, but I just wonder what would you recommend for us to have. I'm sure most of us have aspirin, but I'm sure there are many other things potentially life-saving that we might not have.
ReplyDeleteIf you're referring strictly to the heart attack, Zack Blackwell explained pretty well in his comments. Now if you refer to different conditions...well maybe in a future post me and Zack Blackwell will cover that ;)
ReplyDeleteCorina Marinescu Cool~ I'm really waiting for that future post! ^__^
ReplyDeleteI have found the archaic nature of civil war era medicine always both terrifying and fascinating. I spent some time last year walking the fields of Bull Run and for all the reading I have done it was the most visceral connection to history I have ever experienced...
ReplyDeleteSorry Bruce Marko ..I happen to love morbid stuff, so for me civil war era medicine is fascinating ;)
ReplyDeleteCorina Marinescu no apologies needed, I think it's a great post. I have read much on that era and when I walked the fields and railroad grade there were diary entries on plaques in the approximate locations of those who wrote them at the time. It was amazing to read a passage I was already familiar with, then look up and see what the ground they saw. Besides other women deserved recognition for their efforts at that time, but the predilections of the era made it impossible for them to truly receive their deserved recognition..:-)
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