American Civil War Surgical Antiques

Dr. Michael Echols is a retired orthodontist, who is currently collecting and studying early American and Civil War surgical antiques.  Dr. Echols is a Florida Southern College graduate with a B.S. in biology & chemistry, who then completed four years of dental school (graduating magna cum laude) and a two year orthodontic residency at the University of Maryland while simultaneously serving in the US Navy reserve for eight years.  He practiced full-time orthodontics in Ft. Myers, Florida for 34 years, retiring in 2006.

Dr. Echols is a current medical antiques contributor to Warman's Civil War Collectibles Book, Vols. 1, 2, 3, as well as the author and subject of many other  articles on collecting medical and surgical antiques.  This website is one of the first medical collector sites on the internet and was established 1997 when Dr. Echols started collecting medical antiques.  The site is actively being expanded with research and new information on a daily basis in lieu of publication in a book.  This way misconceptions can be corrected at will and new information added immediately. Your constructive input or comments is genuinely welcome.

The purpose of this web site is to provide a continually updated, extensive (over 900 web pages as of 2010),  resource to share knowledge and to further the preservation of our American Civil War medical heritage.  The intent is to also better understand the education of the surgeons who served in the Civil War as well as their personal history.

Dr. Echols is strictly an active collector-researcher of pre-1865 medical and surgical antiques.  He is not a dealer and nothing on this web site is for sale.  The antiques on this website are part of an active, on-going private preservation collection.  Offers to sell items similar to those displayed on this site are of interest and welcome as are your questions and feedback.