Civil War Era Hey's Surgical Saw
date: label: date made
content: c. 1850s-1860s
label: date made
content: 1850s-1860s
notes: label: Description
content: This instrument was part of an amputation surgical set which belonged to Lt. Col. William Irvin Wolfley, Surgeon in Chief of the 62nd Ohio Infantry. Dr. Wolfley was attached to DeRussey's Division of the Army of the Potomac, and was in charge of the convalescent camps along the Potomac from Chain Bridge to Alexandria, Virginia. This overall set has sixty instruments, the majority of which were manufactured by Jacob H. Gemrig of Philadelphia, twelve instruments made by Otto & Reynders whose shop was at 64 Chatham Street in New York City, and one by Codman and Shurtleff of Boston, Massachusetts. Surgical sets cost between $20 and $50 during this period, with more expensive sets containing more instruments.
label: Description
content: Sets containing different instruments from different manufacturers were common. If an instrument broke or was lost it was simply replaced.
label: Description
content: William Hey (1736–1819), a surgeon in Leeds, presented this type of saw in his Practical Observations in Surgery (London, 1803), noting that he had used one for cranial operations for twenty years and found it much more useful than the trephine. The form, he noted, “was first shewn to me by Mr. (now Dr.) Cockell, an ingenious practitioner at Pontefract, to whom the public is indebted for the discovery, or revival, of this excellent instrument.”
label: Description
content: This example was used during the Civil War by Lt. Col. William Irvin Wolfley, a surgeon with the 62nd Ohio Infantry. The “GEMRIG” inscription refers to a surgical instrument firm in Philadelphia that was established by Jacob S. Gemrig, a German cutler who arrived in the U.S. ca. 1830, and that was continued by his son, John H. Gemrig.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: used
content: United States: Virginia
topic: label: associated subject; web subjec
content: Surgery
label: associated subject; web subjec
content: Surgical instruments
label: related event
content: Civil War
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Civil War Surgical Sets
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Elizabeth F. Wolfley, Eleanor Wolfley Bisell, Caroline Wolfley Shannon and Elizabeth Wolfley Harman
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.112986.01.31
label: accession number
content: 112986
label: catalog number
content: 112986.01.31
label: catalog number
content: M-02999
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Saw
label: Object Name
content: saw
label: Object Name
content: surgical set
label: Other Terms
content: Saw; Cutting Tool; Skull
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal, steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood, ebony (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1/2 in x 7 1/2 in x 1 1/2 in; 1.27 cm x 19.05 cm x 3.81 cm