American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Velvet-lined wood case (6 x 15.5 x 3 in.), top corners with brass, brass cartouche (unmarked). Ca  1890-1900. Instruments include: Capital or bone saw (9”), smaller saw (.25”), Hey’s saw,  bone snips, all marked “Shepard’s Duplex.” Conical crown trephine and handle, unmarked. Nine-inch blade knife, 7-1/2 inch single-edge knife and 7-1/2 inch double-edge knife, all marked “Shepard’s Duplex.” Plus an elevator and small forceps. Scalpels and saws with ebony handles. Several compartments empty. It probably originally contained a tourniquet and possibly surgical needles as well as a couple of other smaller knives/scalpels. Label at top “Ohio Dental & Surgical Depot / Sam’l. A. Crocker & Co., Cin. O.” No key. Spanish-American War era.

Samuel A. Crocker (1844-1913) operated his dental and surgical supply company out of Cincinnati, Ohio for decades. From the 1870s, the city directory lists Spencer & Crocker, Dental & Surgical Goods. By 1890, it was only Crocker & Co. This fits with the style of amputation kit offered here. We have seen others with a similar assortment of tools and similar designs from East coast firms from the 1890s. This also represents the end of an era: although slow to embrace the scientific evidence, shortly after this American medicine finally accepted the “germ theory” of infection and began to manufacture instruments that could be sterilized or at least cleaned with chemicals such as carbolic acid. This meant handles were now metal as this cleaning could not be done with ivory, bone, antler, wood, and other (often luxury) materials that had been used for medical instruments. As a note of interest: Lucy Elizabeth Mosher Crocker (Mrs. Samuel A.) was aboard the Carpathia with her eldest son and his new wife when the ship stopped to pick up survivors of the Titanic. After taking the survivors to New York, the Crockers continued their journey to Europe.