The International Museum of Surgical Science, nestled discretely among residential mansions on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive, is a graveyard of grim technology that makes one glad to have been born in the latter half of the twentieth century. While we wince about global warming, unsteady capitalism, and the unceasing popularity of low-rise jeans, it does our minds good to take solace in the fact that trepanation, the ancient art of skull drilling, is now relegated to the realm of batty subculture.
In the words of Al Shatz, my companion on a recent free-Tuesday trip to the museum’s galleries, it’s astonishing to consider “the sorts of stuff they used to shove in the human body and where in the human body they used to shove it.”
Dr. Max Thorek, presumably in the possession of more bone saws then he could tastefully display in his living room, spearheaded the IMSS in 1954. The four-story building now houses a multicultural array of grisly scientific weapons that have refused to die.
Blood-letting tools, gargantuan specula, and needles worth collecting as scrap metal abound. Among the more cringe-worthy specimens are an ancient Roman catheter (a tarnished bronze tube that measures about 1/4 inch diameter), a collection of “remarkable” kidney stones, an early twentieth century bone-crusher that warrants a side-show barker, a hemorrhoid operating kit that must be seen to be believed, and an innocuous looking set of forceps “used for grasping the breast during amputation, devised by Adrian Helvetius.” Yikes!
Most exhibits are thoughtfully peppered with enough text to warrant multiple visits. For example, on the history of stitches from the Japanese wing of the museum: The history of sutures is very old. Around the 10th century B.C., the procedure called for an ant to be held over the wound until it seized the wound’s edges in its jaws. The ant was then decapitated and the death grip from the ant’s jaw kept the wound closed.
In addition to clinical devices, the institution houses a permanent collection of medically-themed paintings as well as rotating gallery exhibits. Brian Dettmer’s show “Postoperative” is currently on display and features a human skull made of melted-down heavy metal cassette tapes.
The International Museum of Surgical Science currently operates from 10am- 4pm Thursday through Saturday, with extended summer hours to begin in April. Admission is $4 for students and is free on Tuesdays. Donations are encouraged.