There are many interesting stories
about the people who have sold their antique surgical sets into this
collection. While some of the surgical sets on this site were purchased
from dealers or at auction, most were from individuals who just wanted to see
their sets go to someone who cared as much as themselves.
Quiet often, old
medical equipment is just discarded by the families of deceased parents or
grandparents who owned it. Many younger family members don't
understand the history and are not appreciative of what these instruments
meant to our collective history. Too often, family treasures are sold by
children at an estate sale or worse yet, disposed of at a garage sale.
Even when family members decide to keep a given set, someone may take an
instrument out of the set for use and destroy a matching set out of ignorance
.
Many
of the surgical sets displayed on this site were preserved by caring families
or friends and can now be enjoyed and appreciated by those of us who want to
preserve this part of our medical and military history. What
happens to this history is important. It's why this Web site
exists.
Thank you to all
the families or individuals who have allowed me to acquire their sets that
were a part of their lives. I know for a fact that some of the
money spent purchasing the antiques on this site was put to good use for
college, medical treatment, or retirement.
These are some of
the stories of the families.
Click on the underlined title
or photo to see the individual surgical sets discussed below
Tiemann Ivory set:
This set was sold
to me several years ago by an older gentleman who lives in up state New York.
The set had been in his family for years and apparently belonged to a female
member of the family who kept the set in the hallway of her house. He
wanted it to go to someone who would take the same care of the set as he had
given it for years. After much communication, we discovered he was
planning on retiring around the corner from where I live in Ft. Myers.
It was just a matter of settling on a price for the set and it is now a center
piece of my collection.
Martin set:
I was able to
obtain this set from a retired doctor in New York who had collected medical
antiques for a number of years and was now liquidating his collection to raise
money for needed medical and dental treatment. When we first started
communicating with each other about what he had in his collection, there was
some hesitation on his part to discuss his collection. After I was able
to convince him I too was a serious collector and sincerely wanted to obtain
his best set, we came to an understanding and the set was purchased. He
and his wife made the decision to sell me the set because of our
communication.
The set is one of
my favorite from a little known maker of instruments in Albany, New York.
Kern trepanning set:
Would you believe
this set was found in the attic of a house in Kentucky by a man who was
cleaning out the house? The case was covered with dust and grime but
after a surface cleaning is almost new inside and out. Unfortunately the
finder/seller didn't know how to open the case and broke the lock figuring it
out. A beautiful set and a real piece of history. Horatio
Kern, the maker, was very active during the Civil War as a maker of surgical
sets.
It took months and
months of letters back and forth to get this set purchased for the collection
as the owner didn't have a computer. He had originally contacted me by
phone via a friend who found this site and told the owner I purchased similar
items. A great guy to work with and we are both proud of where the set
ended up.
Gemrig resection set:
The owner of this
set contacted several dealers asking for bids. In the end, he decided to
sell the set into this collection because the price offered was the highest
and he felt it would be best cared for by this collector. The set had
been in his family for many years, he is in the retirement mode, and he just
wanted to find someone he could pass the set along to who really wanted to own
it. It was originally owned by a local doctor in New Jersey who died in
the 1940's.
Hernstein set owned by a Confederate
doctor:
The seller/owner of
this set was the great grandson of W. T. Jordan, MD. The seller/owner
had the set in his family since the early 1900's as it was pass down from his
great grandfather. It took a lot of discussion and research to make sure
the original owner of the set was a Civil War doctor and the full story is
detailed on the page with the photos of the set.
Wocher set:
This set was
acquired from a gentleman in Nebraska. He and his brother had played
with the set as children and now at the age of 55, he was willing to sell the
set. He told me it had belonged to a doctor who came out West after the
Civil War and practiced in a small town in Nebraska. The set has
obviously seen much action, but nothing is known about the doctor.
Kuemerle Set:
This is a set
obtained from another retired doctor who lived in Colorado. He contacted
me several years ago and offered to sell his whole collection. I flew
out to Denver to look over the collection and to make a long story short, I
purchase his whole collection and shipped it back home the same day. I
don't know anything about the history of the set, but I do know the doctor
said he had obtained the set from an antique dealer a number of years and
carried the set home on a plane. Not something we could do today for
many reasons due to how our world has changed since 9/11.
Small Gemrig set
This small
amputation set was acquired at a flea-market in Pennsylvania twenty years ago
for $40, needless to say the buyer made a very good return on his investment
when I acquired it from him in 2003.
If you have a set
you wish to sell into this collection for preservation, please send
contact me. Your help in expanding the collection for everyone to enjoy
on-line would be appreciated.
