The study of the development of medical technologies — instruments, devices, prostheses and other implements — is one of the most exciting ways to decode the history of medicine. Some of these items have remained largely unchanged for 300 years, while others have transformed beyond recognition.
The Museum’s collection includes everything from ancient implements used by shamans and folk healers, to surgical instruments and electrotherapy machines, to artificial ventilation devices, stethoscopes, x-ray scanners, electrocardiographs, prostheses, eyeglasses, hearing aids, and many other items and appliances produced from the early 20th century till the 1970s.