The adoption of a therapeutic approach at the Kingston Asylum [had] proved a great success in the treatment of ‘chronic mental disease’ – using occupations in the form of work and craft to compliment routine treatment. This laid the groundwork for a new medical profession in Canada: occupational therapy. … More The Early Years of Occupational Therapy in Kingston
HRT and Its Patients in the 1940s: As we saw last week, hormone replacement therapies using estrogen, progesterone and testosterone had found a place among Canadian gynecologists and obstetricians by the early 1940s. Even before the Second World War began, drug manufacturers like Schering Ltd. (Montreal), Organon (Toronto) and Parke-Davis Co. (Walkerville and Brockville) … More Fulfilling Prescriptions: HRT Artifacts in 1950s and 1960s Ontario
Today, I’ll be showing you a bit more about how HRT became a part of Canadian doctors’ work in the early-to-mid twentieth century. … More Selling Sex: HRT and Knowledge Transmission in 1940s Ontario
My project for this summer’s Margaret Angus Research Fellowship will try to unearth some of this history, looking at hormones’ incorporation into physicians’ education, hospitals, and peoples’ daily lives. By investigating the education of physicians at Queen’s medical school, records of their practice and training, news sources like the ones considered here, and 2SLGBTQI+ community records and ephemera, I will be looking into the local history of HRT in Kingston and Ontario more generally. … More The Public Life of Hormones: HRT in Ontarian Communities
Originally recorded on November 19th, 2023, Jessica’s Sealey’s lecture Monstrous Instruments: The Vaginal Speculum and the Contagious Diseases Acts Repeal Movement is now available for viewing on the Museum of Health Care’s YouTube Channel. … More MARF 2023 Lecture Recording and Manuscript Now Available
The notorious advocate for repeal of the CD Acts, Reverend Robert Eli Hooppell, was known for his vivid descriptions of the speculum examinations at repeal meetings in the North of England, even going so far as to display the instrument itself to shocked crowds of working-class men and women. This practice was considered particularly distasteful by the repeal leader Josephine Butler, who described it as “needlessly and grossly indecent,” repelling “many good men” from their cause … More “Unfeeling Glass and Steel Telescopes”: The Speculum and Pelvic Exam in Repeal Propaganda
This project brings together a history of the object with examples drawn from the Museum of Health Care’s collection, alongside a critical examination of repealer writing on Contagious Diseases Acts’ medical examinations and the instrument of the speculum. … More 2023 Margaret Angus Research Fellowship Lecture
The “thing in petticoats” the author describes is an unnamed female nurse who attended patients and aided the military physician at the Flora Lane inspection office. Reportedly, as the widow “entered the surgeon’s den, weeping,” the attending nurse (or “thing in petticoats”) told her “not ‘to take it to heart so.’” While it may appear that this particular nurse was being singled out for her cruelty and dismissiveness toward her patients, the article in its entirety presents a surprisingly scathing attack on all the female nurses who participated in the CD Acts medical examinations. … More “A Thing in Petticoats” Nurses and the Contagious Diseases Acts of Britain
the landscape of gynaecology changed dramatically during the nineteenth century. Along with experimentation, research, and increasing knowledge came innovation in techniques and technologies until, for better or worse, the Victorian gynaecologist had a veritable arsenal of tools at their disposal. Drawing primarily from the Museum of Health Care’s collection, this blog post examines some of the medical instruments that helped change the face of gynaecology in the nineteenth century, many of which are still in use in some variation today. … More Nineteenth-Century Gynaecology: A History in Objects
Over the last 4 years, I have dedicated my time to researching and writing about the Contagious Diseases Acts of Britain (CD Acts) (1864-1886). Despite being an important moment in medical, military, and feminist history, the CD Acts have become a relatively forgotten phenomenon. In my conversations with curious friends and family over the years, most have been shocked to learn that the British government once detained women accused of prostitution, forcing them to undergo invasive vaginal examinations to search for signs of venereal disease. … More Prostitution Regulation and Public Health: The Contagious Diseases Acts of Britain
