Eesti muuseumide meditsiinilooliste kogude ja esemete väljaselgitamine
Creators: name: Kriis, Leili
name: Sisask, Sirje
Publisher: name: Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi
Year: 2014

description: Mapping of the Collections of History of Medicine in Estonian Museums Leili Kriis, Sirje Sisask University of Tartu Museum The work plan of the University of Tartu Museum for the following years includes creating a new exposition for the university’s Old Anatomical Theatre. This made us wonder, what kinds of collections of history of medicine are there in other Estonian museums. A great opportunity to obtain information opened up with the Ministry of Culture’s support programme for developing museums that we participated in with our project “Mapping of the Collections of History of Medicine in Estonian Museums” from 17 April to 31 December 2013. To obtain data, we designed a questionnaire for the chief treasurers of the museums. Based on the answers we received, the following overview was compiled. At the time we conducted the survey, more than half of the materials of history of medicine in the museum collections had been entered also into the Estonian Museum Information System MuIS. Keywords related to the topic of medicine have been used. Most of the corresponding materials in Estonian museums are connected to pharmacies (material objects as well as photographs and archive materials), and furnishings of dental practices (Pärnu Museum, Võru County Museum, etc.). Regional museums also contain objects of veterinary medicine. There are rare items of history of medicine such as an inoculation knife, cupping lancets, bloodletting devices, a bone saw, an irritation instrument, healing stones, a homoeopathic pharmacy, and many more. The most noteworthy archive materials are probably the inoculation materials, mud treatment materials (materials and manuscripts of Dr Hunnius from Haapsalu, mud treatment history of Saaremaa), and manuscripts by medics (historical overviews). Topics like doping (the Estonian Sports Museum), designing medical institutions (hospitals, sanatoriums, etc.) (Museum of Estonian Architecture, Museum of Viljandi), diseases and stress, and how these are reflected in a person’s creative work (Estonian Theatre and Music Museum) have also been documented. Most valuable are the stories found in the collections of county museums that tell of medical institutions (hospitals, pharmacies, sanatoriums, leprosariums, etc.) that have operated or are operating in the region and reflect the specific character of the region, as well as the materials of well-known local medics. Also materials related to alternative and folk medicine. All this enriches the general picture of the Estonian history of medicine. Our working group reached the conclusion that the contents of the MuIS dictionary should be structured in a better manner and supplemented with topics that are reflected in specific museum collections (alternative medicine, nutrition, environment, etc.). Images of museum objects are also important data carriers in the database. Rare historical documents deserve to be digitised as soon as possible since they tend to become fragile with time. Regional museums should also find room for materials related to the history and doctors of local medical institutions.
description: Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi, No 42 (2014): Ülikool ja keelevahetus