Stethoscope
name: label: maker
content: 3M Company. Cardiosonic Instruments. Medical Products Division
notes: label: Description
content: This Littman stethoscope belonged to Dr. David J. Skorton (b. 1949), the 13th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (2015-2019). Dr. Skortin a cardiologist, received his BA (1970) and his MD (1974) from Northwestern University. In 1979 he completed his residency and fellowship from the University of California where he focused on congenital heart disease and cardiac imaging. He served as President of the University of University of Iowa, and Cornell University. In July 2019 Dr. Skorton became the President and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
label: Description
content: In 1963, David Littman (1906-1981), a cardiologist and professor at Harvard Medical School, patented what has come to be called a Littman stethoscope. Since its creation, the Littmann stethoscope has been seen as the gold standard among stethoscopes. The Littman is lightweight and easy to carry. Much more importantly, it dramatically improved auscultation (the act of listening to internal body sounds to assess the function of the heart, lungs, and other organs). The Littman can be used to detect abnormalities such as heart murmurs, lung crackles, or bowel sounds.
label: Description
content: Littman’s revolutionary stethoscope built on the hundred and fifty year history of this instrument. These instruments had first come into use in the early nineteenth century when the French physician, René Théophile Hycanith Laennec used a rolled tube to listen to a patient’s heartbeats in 1816. Within ten years of Laennec publishing his invention, the stethoscope had become a common diagnostic tool in Europe and the Americas. By the 1840s, physicians had begun experimenting with the idea of a binaural stethoscope. With its two earpieces, a binaural stethoscope allowed for improved sound transmission and better isolation of sounds. Between the 1840s and 1960, the binaural stethoscope became increasingly common, coming to be seen as a symbol of the physician.
label: Description
content: In 1961, David Littman published an article in the American Medical Association’s journal calling for a stethoscope which included an "open chestpiece for the appreciation of low-pitched sounds, a closed chestpiece with a stiff plastic diaphragm to filter-out low-pitched sounds, firm tubing with a single lumen bore, the shortest practical overall length, a spring with precise tension to hold the ear tubes apart, and light and convenient to carry and use." Littman had described what has come to be called a "combination " or "two-sided chestpiece " stethoscope.
label: Description
content: By 1967, Littman, along with Gus Machlup, had founded a small medical company which produced two versions of this stethoscope, a physician’s stethoscope and a nurse’s stethoscope. That year, 3M bought Littman’s company and began producing Littman stethoscopes.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Medicine
label: Subject
content: Diagnostic Equipment
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: David J. Skorton, Secretary of the Smithsonian
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2019.0114.01
label: accession number
content: 2019.0114
label: catalog number
content: 2019.0114.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: stethoscope
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (ear tubes material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (y-tube material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (ear plugs material)
label: Physical Description
content: carbon (y-tube material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 58 cm x 9.4 cm x 3 cm; 22 27/32 in x 3 11/16 in x 1 3/16 in