Headlines
As reported by The Hartford Courant, December 4, 2007.
Medical Artifacts Being Moved to UConn Health Center
A physician's saddlebag used to carry medicines by doctors who made house calls on horseback is among a collection of historical medical artifacts that will move to the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington this spring.
The Hartford Medical Society is moving the collection of medical books and journals as well as the saddlebag and an anesthesia machine from 1946 from its Scarborough Street spot in Hartford's West End to a 2,500-square-foot space next to the Lyman Maynard Stowe Library at the health center.
The saddlebag was used by Dr. Elezear Pomeroy Hunt, who practiced in Tolland in the early and mid-1800s. The collection also includes records of the experiments of Horace Wells, a 19th-century Hartford dentist credited with the discovery of surgical anesthesia.
The society will bear the costs of the renovation and relocation as well as the maintenance of its collection and will reimburse UConn for the cost of hiring a librarian to oversee it. The health center also will provide space for the society's continuing education programs for physicians.