Gerbro Red Wool Flannel Bandage, Item No. 20030, 3 in. x 5 yds.
name: label: manufacturer
content: Gerstein Bros. Mfg. Corp.
notes: label: Description
content: Gerstein Bros. Mfg. Corp. made a wide range of medical bandages: Muslin, Triangular, Compressed, Camouflaged, Dyed; plain cotton and wool flannel. The company was a supplier to the US Medical Department during WWII. Red Cross nursing manuals from the 1910s state that red flannel was preferred to white for bandaging rheumatic joints, presumably because the dye had some medical value. The color red was associated with healing according to the Encyclopedia of Folk Medicine. Red flannel bandages were used for wrapping injuries and for backaches, and were considered efficacious in preventing and treating infectious diseases such as whooping cough, scarlet fever, and smallpox. By the early twentieth century, the red flannel bandage was firmly entrenched in medical practice although the medicinal advantage of the color was no longer recognized.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: American Textile History Museum
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2017.0234.20
label: catalog number
content: 2017.0234.20
label: accession number
content: 2017.0234
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bandage, wool, rolled
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wool flannel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (packaging material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 cm x 8 cm x 7.5 cm; 2 3/8 in x 3 5/32 in x 2 15/16 in