Denture
notes: label: Description
content: This denture, the maxillary arch or the upper palate was given to the museum in 1969 by dentist D.L. Crowson of Petal, Mississippi. In a letter to curator Audrey Davis, Dr. Crowson wrote, “I have no history on this denture except I was told by the person who gave it to me that it had been picked up on the Shiloh battlefield site”. The upper palate appears to be made of silver and it has eight porcelain or mineral tube teeth. Each tooth has a “central canal” which is secured to the palate with pins. Two teeth are missing.
label: Description
content: It is very likely, given the materials and its construction that the denture is from the time period of the Civil War. Porcelain teeth were developed in 18th century Europe and brought to the United States in the early 19th century. The so called “tube teeth” were developed in London around 1840 by Claudius Ash.
label: Description
content: An X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Spectrometer determined the metal content of the palate. The XRF found the palate was composed of: Silver 88.03% Copper 11.45%, Lead 0.35%, Zinc 0.13% and Bismuth 0.05%. The analysis showed that the palate was predominantly coin silver also known as German silver with small amounts of lead, tin, zinc and bismuth. The conservator explained the trace materials “would contribute to the malleability of the metal during processing”. “This makes sense because they very well could have been added to the mix to help with the forming process of the palate…”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Dental Products
label: Subject
content: Civil War
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: D. L. Crowson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-12990
label: catalog number
content: M-12990
label: accession number
content: 287883
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Dentures, Silver
label: Object Name
content: denture
label: Object Name
content: denture device
label: Other Terms
content: Dentures, Silver; Dentistry
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 5/8 in x 2 1/2 in x 1 3/4 in; 1.5875 cm x 6.35 cm x 4.445 cm