Freeman Transorbital Leucotome
date: label: date made
content: ca 1950
label: date(s) of previous ownership
content: 1986-03-04
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: Leucotomes for lobotomies designed by Walter Jackson Freeman, II (1895-1972) and James Winston Watts (1904-1994) and made by Henry A. Ator (1906-1995). Freeman was a neurologist and psychologist affiliated with St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and George Washington University Hospital. Watts was a surgeon who served, for many years, as chief of neurosurgery at George Washington University Hospital. Ator was a machinist from Arkansas who worked at the Washington Navy Yard and then the Bureau of Printing and Engraving before turning his attention, in the 1940s, to lobotomy and other surgical instruments.
label: Description
content: Ref: Walter Freeman and James W. Watts, Psychosurgery: In the Treatment of Mental Disorders and Intractable Pain (Springfield, Ill., 1950).
label: Description
content: “W. Freeman, Lobotomy Pioneer, Dies,” Los Angeles Times (June 2, 1972), p. C4.
label: Description
content: “D.C. Neurosurgeon Pioneered ‘Operation Icepick’ Technique,” Washington Post (April 7, 1980), pp. A1-A2.
label: Description
content: “Neurosurgeon James Watts Dies; Helped to Pioneer the Lobotomy,” Washington Post (Nov. 9, 1994), p. C4.
label: Description
content: “Henry Avon Ator,” Washington Post (April 2, 1995), p. B5.
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: 1986.0376.01
label: accession number
content: 1986.0376
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0376.01
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0376.01.A
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0376.01.B
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Leucotome, transorbital
label: Object Name
content: leucotome, transorbital
label: Other Terms
content: Leucotome, transorbital; Medicine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel, stainless (instruments material)
label: Physical Description
content: leatherette (case material)
label: Physical Description
content: black (case color)
label: Measurements
content: part: case (closed): 8 1/4 in x 3 3/4 in x 3/4 in; 20.955 cm x 9.525 cm x 1.905 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall, case, closed: 3/4 in x 8 1/4 in x 3 3/4 in; 1.905 cm x 20.955 cm x 9.525 cm
label: Measurements
content: part: case (open): 13 7/16 in x 10 in x 1/4 in; 34.13125 cm x 25.4 cm x .635 cm
label: Measurements
content: part: instruments (each): 7 3/4 in x 1 1/2 in x 1/4 in; 19.685 cm x 3.81 cm x .635 cm