Items
Subject is exactly
pregnancy
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Layette Pincushion
This layette pincushion is made of light-blue fabric, faded from the sun and mottled in places. A message pricked out in pins reading “God Bless Thee my baby” appears in cursive in the centre of the cushion. The first three words are capitalized and separated by pinheads. A curved frame of pinheads surrounds the message, and there are decorative details at the top, bottom, centre, and corners of the frame. The top decoration resembles a crown, and the bottom decoration either a teardrop or a leaf. The corners of the frame are marked with triangular shapes. To the left and right of the pinhead frame, there are curved floral designs of ribbon rosettes in pink, blue, yellow, and white, and leaves in soft green. White lace trims all four sides of the cushion, which measures five inches wide, three and three-quarters inches deep, and two inches high. The pincushion’s provenance is unknown, but it most likely formed part of a baby’s layette and seems to have been made by its mother, as suggested by the possessive “my” in the message. -
Budin-Pinard Obstetric Manikin
This page from J. Clifton Edgar’s “The Manikin in the Teaching of Practical Obstetrics,” published in “The New York Medical Journal” (December 1890), includes illustrations of a Budin-Pinard obstetric manikin, which was used to teach medical students. The illustrations are rendered in black and white and show the manikin with close attention to detail. The manikin represents the torso of a female body, from just above the breasts to a few inches above the knee. Crucial to the manikin’s function are its rubber vulva, anus, and inflated anterior abdominal wall. Whereas the manikin itself is made of wood and propped up with a small peg, the abdominal wall and genital area are made of rubber and appear to be attached to the base of the manikin with bands of adhesive material. The article accompanying the illustration describes the manikin as follows: “the thighs are widely separated for convenience in operating, and the anterior abdominal wall is made of rubber capable of being distended with air, and so arranged on a frame hinged to the upper part of the body, that the whole may be thrown back, thus bringing the abdominal cavity and pelvic inlet into view. The pelvic excavation is so carved as to roughly represent the normal bony pelvis. And one piece of India rubber lines the abdominal and pelvic cavities. And at the pelvic outlet is so moulded and secured to the margin of the inferior strait as to form the vulva, vagina, and perineum” (702). -
Charlotte Brontë’s Dress
Charlotte Brontë wore this dress on her honeymoon to County Clare, Ireland. The dress consists of a bodice and a skirt, each made of lavender-coloured, striped, medium-weight silk. The bodice is adorned with tan-coloured silk velvet cuffs and collar, and edged with ten small triangles trimmed with silk fringe. The full-length skirt, attached to a waistband, is gathered across the centre back, while the skirt front is flat with small pleats at either side. A small bustle would have been worn underneath. Both the bodice and skirt are close fitting around the waist and fully lined with cream-coloured cotton. The bodice fastens down the centre front with fourteen metal hooks and eyes, and the skirt fastens with two large metal hooks and eyes on the right hand side. The photos showing the interior of the dress reveal alterations and some of the damage to the interior caused by stress on the fabric. -
Miscarriage Specimens
A single printed page from the “Transactions of the Michigan State Medical Society for the Year 1896” displays four images of fetal tissue in glass jars, each labelled in a small serifed font. These photographs appear in a medical article by William C. Stevens titled “Partial Abortion; Expulsion of the Amniotic Sack Alone; Three Specimens,” which demonstrates how late-century medical professionals used such specimens. Captions for each image describe the size of the specimens: specimen 1, at the top left-hand corner, is “½ natural size”; specimen 2, at the top right-hand corner, is “2/3 natural size”; specimen 3, at the bottom left-hand corner, is “½ natural size”; specimen 4, at the bottom right-hand corner, is “2/3 natural size.” The details of the specimens are unclear due to the grainy quality of the halftones (a type of mechanical reproduction that allowed photographs to be reproduced as prints). -
Minutes of Evidence on Gardner Peerage
Currently housed at the UK Parliamentary Archives, these handwritten manuscripts record the proceedings of the Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords in London. With covers of hand-marbled paper, each booklet displays the date and the title of the case in the secretary’s handwriting on its cover. Each book contains a new day of proceedings, with each witness beginning on a new page. The paper is thick and textured, with the marbled covers taking on different dominant hues: green, red, or beige. The booklets are bound loosely with a red ribbon.