The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. From 1917 to 1926, U.S. Radium Corporation, originally called the Radium Luminous Material Corporation, was engaged in the extraction and purification of radium from carnotite ore to produce luminous paints, which were marketed under the brand nameContinue reading “The Radium Girls: The Living Dead Women in the 1920s”
Tag Archives: medical
The Story of Painless Parker, an Early 20th Century Street Dentist Who Pulled 357 Teeth in One Day
Before local anesthesia could manage the pain, one early 20th century dentist distracted his patients with showgirls and brass bands. Painless Parker found that a bit of the old razzle dazzle not only added enough commotion to keep a person from focusing too much on a tooth pulling, it drew an audience of prospective patients.Continue reading “The Story of Painless Parker, an Early 20th Century Street Dentist Who Pulled 357 Teeth in One Day”
Official Baby Care Guides by the Department of Hygiene, Kansas State Board of Health From the Early 20th Century
When it comes to childrearing advice, we’ve come a long way, baby. Modern parenting isn’t easy. Childcare books and blogs are filled with so much contradictory advice, it makes you want to throw your own tantrum. But there’s good news: You don’t live in centuries past, when baby advice wasn’t merely contradictory; it was alsoContinue reading “Official Baby Care Guides by the Department of Hygiene, Kansas State Board of Health From the Early 20th Century”
Faces From the Front: Incredible Before and After Photos Show World War I Soldiers’ Horrific Facial Injuries
These incredible before and after photographs show how British and French soldiers had to have their faces completely rebuilt having been maimed during World War One. The photos are part of a book, Faces from the Front, looking at the early development of plastic surgery. It highlights the work of young surgeon Harold Gillies, whoContinue reading “Faces From the Front: Incredible Before and After Photos Show World War I Soldiers’ Horrific Facial Injuries”
Magic Massage From Dr. Swift
Victorian era advertisement for a massage treatment to cure female “hysteria.” You don’t have to be Einstein to figure out exactly what the “doctor” is doing, and as shocking as it may seem to modern sensibilities, treatments such as this were considered perfectly acceptable in the 19th and early 20th century. The ad definitely appearsContinue reading “Magic Massage From Dr. Swift”
With Copper, Foil and Paint, a Little-Known American Sculptor Saved Scores of World War I Soldiers From a Faceless Future
Born in Philadelphia in 1878, Anna Coleman Ladd was a classically trained sculptress who in 1917 founded the American Red Cross Studio for Portrait Masks in Paris. Anna was inspired to offer her talent as an artist to help soldiers in France after reading an article about Francis Derwent Wood and his “Tin Noses Shop”Continue reading “With Copper, Foil and Paint, a Little-Known American Sculptor Saved Scores of World War I Soldiers From a Faceless Future”
20 Vintage Photos of Iron Lungs for Polio Victims From Between the 1930s and 1950s
In the early 20th century, polio was one of the most feared diseases in industrialized countries, paralysing hundreds of thousands of children every year. A highly infectious disease, polio attacks the nervous system and can lead to paralysis, disability and even death. The symptoms – pain and weakness, fatigue and muscle loss – can strikeContinue reading “20 Vintage Photos of Iron Lungs for Polio Victims From Between the 1930s and 1950s”
125 Reasons You Could End Up in a Lunatic Asylum in the 19th Century
Reasons for admission into the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia from 1864 to 1889 included laziness, egotism, disappointed love, female disease, mental excitement, cold, snuff, greediness, imaginary female trouble, “gathering in the head,” exposure and quackery, jealousy, religion, asthma, masturbation, and bad habits. Spouses used lunacy laws to rid themselves of their partners andContinue reading “125 Reasons You Could End Up in a Lunatic Asylum in the 19th Century”
40 Amazing Photos of the 1918 Spanish Flu
Spanish flu, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or the 1918 influenza pandemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was March 1918 in Kansas, United States, with further cases recorded in France, Germany and the United Kingdom in April. Two years later,Continue reading “40 Amazing Photos of the 1918 Spanish Flu”
Rare Vintage Photos Capture Student Life at the World’s First Medical College for Women From the Late 19th Century
The Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, founded in 1850 as the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, was the first medical school in the world for women authorized to award them the M.D. It was established in Philadelphia by a group of progressive Quakers and a businessman who believed that women had a right to educationContinue reading “Rare Vintage Photos Capture Student Life at the World’s First Medical College for Women From the Late 19th Century”
Yesterday Today 