Welcome, medical history enthusiasts, to the debut issue of a brand new series hosted by the Center for Education of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Docent Discussions is an ongoing series that gives you an inside perspective on the Mütter Museum as told by our dedicated team of museum docents.
Our first installment is hosted by Mütter docent Lindsay Freed.
What is your favorite exhibit in the Museum and why?
The Chevalier Jackson Collection of Swallowed Objects is definitely my favorite thing in the museum. I love it so much because it speaks volumes to the dedication that one physician embodied to his trade, to public health, to research, and to the improvement of protocols designed to save lives. The objects in the cases are fun, quirky, and astonishing, but they tell a much deeper story about Dr. Jackson's life and his incredible work. He created the catalogue of objects in order to better his own and the field of otolaryngology's understanding of what "foreign bodies" might look like, how they ended up in the throats and airways of children and adults, and how to most safely remove them. He was also clearly a deeply weird and deeply focused guy, which I relate to on a spiritual level. Chevalier Jackson's work revolutionized the removal of foreign bodies, making the procedure safer, less surgically invasive, and much less likely to lead to infection, complications, or death. His various biographies, including The Life of Chevalier Jackson -- An Autobiography tell all about him and his amazing contributions to medicine, and can be acquired on the internet.
Chevalier Jackson Collection
Dr. Jackson created a collection of objects retrieved from his patients. Often, if the patient (or the child patient’s parents) could not afford to pay for the procedure, Dr. Jackson asked only to keep the retrieved item. The Mutter Museum has 2374 items which were either inhaled or swallowed and then retrieved by Dr. Jackson during his nearly 75 years of practicing medicine.
Biographical Information:
Chevalier Jackson was born in 1863 and grew up on a farm in western Pennsylvania. His first known retrieval from a tube was using an instrument he developed to retrieve a dropped drill bit from a well on the family farm. This extraction led to a career in which he developed the endoscope, first used in 1890 to remove a ‘tooth-plate’ from the esophagus of an adult.
Jackson attended what became the University of Pittsburgh and attended medical school at what became Thomas Jefferson University. He returned to Pittsburgh to practice and decided to specialize in laryngology. In addition to being known as the Father of Endoscopy, Dr. Jackson also successfully lobbied for the passage of the Federal Caustic Poison Act of 1927, which required the labeling of poisonous or corrosive substances.
How has this exhibit inspired you to do something different in your own life?
I think the Chevalier Jackson Collection honestly inspires me to buckle down on making sure I have a life's work. The prolific nature of the swallowed objects is an indication of Dr. Jackson's passion for his work, and his unwillingness to compromise standards for data collection and the pursuit of better solutions to serious issues. I've been putting off applying for programs to get a Master's in Public Health for about a year now, but looking at this exhibit helps me write a few emails and attend a few info session webinars and start getting serious about it.
What is the strongest or most unusual reaction you’ve seen in the museum?
People playing a sort of "tag yourself" /meme / game with the Chevalier Jackson Collection ("Oh I'm this one, the prosthetic gold tooth! This monopoly piece is so you, though!")
More information about the Chevalier Jackson Collection at the Mutter Museum may be found .
References:
Chevalier Jackson: The Father of American Bronchoesophagoscopy, Arthur D. Boyd, MD;
Wikipedia page