Object Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Physician's saddle bag |
Object Name |
Container, Medicine |
Credit line |
Silvia M. Ferretti, D.O Medical Museum |
Year Range from |
1800 |
Description |
The leather doctor’s bag evolved from earlier wooden and leather chests and pocket cases for drugs and surgical equipment. As diagnostic instrumentation and procedures were developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s, doctors making house calls needed a reliable bag specially fitted with compartments to carry an increasing load of instruments and drug supplies. In the 1800s physicians answering rural emergencies on horseback draped medical/surgical saddle bags over the horse’s neck. Once a symbol of the family physician, medical bags disappeared when doctors stopped making regular house calls in the 1960s. |
Search Terms |
Apothecary Pharmaceutical Pharmacy Glass |
Subjects |
Medical equipment & supplies Medicine Pharmaceutical industry Pharmacists |
Collection |
Medicine |
Accession number |
Pharma. 5 |