The Thaumaturgy Department

thecivilwarparlor:

Artificial Leg from Civil War Period-The American Civil War Caused the Start of the American Prosthetics Field

For those who could pursue a prosthetic, in the North, the most popular artificial leg was a “Palmer” leg, named for Benjamin Franklin Palmer, who patented the design. A previous design by James Potts was made of wood, leather, and cat-gut tendons hinging the knee and ankle joints, and dubbed “The Clapper” for the clicking sound of its motion. Palmer improved upon this design with a heel spring in 1846, Palmer’s leg cost about $150.

In the South, North Carolina responded quickly to the needs of its citizens. It became the first of the former Confederate states to offer artificial limbs to amputees. The General Assembly passed a resolution in February 1866 to provide artificial legs, or an equivalent sum of money (seventy dollars) to amputees who could not use them. Because artificial arms were not considered very functional, the state did not offer them, or equivalent money (fifty dollars), until 1867. While North Carolina operated its artificial limbs program, 1,550 Confederate veterans contacted the government for help.

Source: http://ncpedia.org/history/cw-1900/amputations Source: http://www.ilsegnodeltempo.com/shop/a-rare-prosthesis-of-the-american-civil-war-una-rara-protesi-della-guerra-civile-americana/ Source: http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-civil-war-and-prosthetic-limbs-12.html

 

bobbycaputo:

Discovering the Fascinating Story of a Mother’s Life in 1960s Nigeria

One of the voids left behind in the digital age of photography is the excitement and mystery of picking up developed prints from a roll of film.

Imagine the thrill Senongo Akpemfelt when he and his family discovered a trove of slide film taken by their mother, Emily, during her work as a missionary and nurse in Nigeria during the 1960s and ’70s.

“I had no idea most of this stuff was there,” Akpem said about the images. “We knew this stuff was around, but I had no idea of the depth of it.”

A family friend in Nigeria collected the film and had it developed in the United States. Since then, Akpem has started to edit the film, scanning images and uploading them to a website he started calledLost Nigeria.

The images tell the story of his mother’s journey to Nigeria in the early 1960s, when she left her home in California to work as a missionary nurse at the Benue Leprosy Settlement. While there, she fell in love with a Nigerian reverend doctor and had three children—two daughters and a son, Senongo, the youngest born in 1979. The family moved back to the United States soon thereafter and lived between Michigan, California and Nigeria over the next decade.

(Continue Reading) 

(via nigerianostalgia)