Lobotomy Knives
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1950
label: date(s) of previous ownership
content: 1986-03-04
name: label: maker
content: Ator, Henry A.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Doctors used these instruments to perform the lobotomy procedure on patients diagnosed with particular psychiatric conditions. The procedure was introduced in 1935 and popularized in the United States by Walter J. Freeman in the 1940s. The doctor inserted the instrument into the frontal lobe of the brain to destroy its connection with other regions.
label: Description
content: Henry A. Ator (1906-1995), the donor of this orbitoclast, was a machinist who manufactured Watts-Freeman lobotomy instruments.
label: Description
content: Ref: Walter Freeman and James Winston Watts, Psychosurgery (Springfield, Ill., 1950).
label: Description
content: “HENRY AVON ATOR,” Washington Post (April 2, 1995), p. B5.
label: Description
content: “Dr. Walter Freeman Dies; Introduced Lobotomy Here,” Washington Post (June 1, 1972), p. C5.
label: Description
content: “Neurosurgeon James Winston Watts Dies; Helped to Pioneer the Lobotomy,” Washington Post (Nov. 9, 1994), p. C4.
label: Description
content: Jack El-Hai, The Lobotomist (Hoboken, 2005).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
topic: label: Subject
content: Disabilities
label: Subject
content: Insanity
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: Disabilities
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Henry A. Ator
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0376.02
label: accession number
content: 1986.0376
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0376.02
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0376.02.A
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0376.02.B
objectType: label: Object Name
content: orbitoclast
label: Object Name
content: orbitoclasts
label: Other Terms
content: orbitoclast; Medicine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel, stainless (insturments material)
label: Physical Description
content: leatherette (case material)
label: Physical Description
content: black (case color)
label: Measurements
content: part: case (open): 13 7/8 in x 8 3/4 in x 1/4 in; 35.2425 cm x 22.225 cm x .635 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall, case, closed: 7/8 in x 9 1/2 in x 3 1/8 in; 2.2225 cm x 24.13 cm x 7.9375 cm
label: Measurements
content: part: case (closed): 9 3/8 in x 3 1/4 in x 7/8 in; 23.8125 cm x 8.255 cm x 2.2225 cm
label: Measurements
content: part: instruments: 9 in x 5/16 in x 1/4 in; 22.86 cm x .79375 cm x .635 cm