Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit for Sexual Assault Examination
date: label: date made
content: ca 1982
name: label: previous owner
content: Dreiser, Mary Sladek
label: designer
content: Playboy Enterprises, Inc.
label: designer
content: Goddard, Marty
label: adapter
content: Vitullo, Louis R.
label: collaborator
content: Citizens Committee for Victim Assistance
label: collaborator
content: Playboy Foundation
label: manufacturer
content: Becton, Dickinson and Company
notes: label: Description
content: This object is jointly stewarded by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and was purchased with support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.
label: Description
content: The language used to describe this object is inherently sensitive. The Museums are currently working to refine how to describe it accurately and ensure that the object is searchable and accessible.
label: Description
content: The Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit for Sexual Assault Examination (the Kit), is an early example of what is commonly known as a “rape kit.” The Kit includes standard supplies such as labeled envelopes and bags for samples, swabs, a comb, paper bags for clothes, and glass slides for semen specimens. It also includes a checklist of protocols, a form for examiners to record their findings, and a form for the victim's consent to release the evidence to the authorities. Another form includes treatment and counseling resources for survivors of assault.
label: Description
content: The Kit’s concept and design was developed between 1972 and 1978 by Martha “Marty” Goddard (1941–2015) while working as an advocate and founder of Citizens Committee for Victim Assistance (CCVA) in Chicago, Illinois. In 1972, Goddard became aware of the tens of thousands of sexual assault cases unprocessed by law enforcement because of a lack of standardized protocol to collect and present forensic evidence, and a bias against accepting the traumatic nature of these crimes. Goddard and colleagues began interviewing survivors, policy makers, law enforcement, attorneys and hospital workers - primarily female nurses who were typically given no information or materials that would allow them to immediately collect evidence in support of victims' claims. Her intention was to understand the treatment of survivors and the use of evidence in the hopes of designing a standardized system that would increase the probability of suspect identification and prosecution.
label: Description
content: In 1978, Goddard and CCVA finalized the design for a kit that standardized the process of collecting and preserving evidence. The kit gathered the tools and instructions for evidence collection and documentation into one box. Goddard intended for the kit to be adapted and used by hospitals and police precincts around the country.
label: Description
content: Goddard presented this design to Louis Vitullo (1924-2006), a Chicago police sergeant who was the chief microanalyst in the city’s crime lab. Soon after, he introduced the Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit for Sexual Assault Examination. The initial funding, assembly of the kits, and graphic design was organized by the Playboy Foundation.
label: Description
content: Goddard committed herself to advocating for the Kit’s implementation. Within two years, the Kit was in use in over two hundred hospitals across Illinois. Such kits are standard protocol in hospitals in the United States today.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Kennedy, Pagan. “The Rape Kit’s Secret History.” The New York Times. June 17, 2020.
label: Description
content: Oral Interview: “Oral History Project Interview With Marty Goddard” by Ann Seymour, Oral History of the Crime Victim Assistance Field. February 26, 2003. Video: https://sonix.ai/r/AK7imJevnbsuNAj4zwJc4xqe/share (last accessed 4/25/2020)
label: Description
content: Ravitz, Jessica. “The Story Behind the First Rape Kit”, CNN , November 21, 2015. https://www.cnn.com/2015/11/20/health/rape-kit-history/index.html (last accessed 4/25/2022)
label: Description
content: Shelby, Renee. “Whose rape kit? Stabilizing the Vitullo Kit through positivist criminology and protocol feminism.” Theoretical Criminology, December 2018. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480618819805
label: Description
content: Sotheby's New York. History of Science & Technology, Including Fossils, Minerals, & Meteorites. New York: Sotheby's, 2021. Auction catalog.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
label: place made
content: United States: Texas, Irving
topic: label: Subject
content: Criminology
label: Subject
content: Forensic Science
label: Subject
content: Feminism
label: Subject
content: Women's Health
label: Subject
content: Women's Rights
label: Subject
content: Women Inventors
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2021.0107.01
label: accession number
content: 2021-8-1-a/gg
label: catalog number
content: 2021.0107.01
label: accession number
content: 2021.0107
objectType: label: Object Name
content: evidence collection kit, sexual assault
label: Object Name
content: rape kit
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper; wood; plastic; graphite; adhesive; cotton; ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall, as originally housed in kit box: 1 1/4 in x 10 1/2 in x 6 1/2 in; 3.175 cm x 26.67 cm x 16.51 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall, as stored in tray: 2 in x 22 in x 14 in; 5.08 cm x 55.88 cm x 35.56 cm