Collections Gets Spooky!

On Saturday, October 29, the Frazier held our annual “Spooky Saturday”, a family day for visitors of all ages filled with fun activities to get us in the Halloween spirit! Some experiences were kid friendly, like story time and the Halloween Tree craft, but some activities, including my own, were properly labeled “slightly spooky”!

Slightly spooky experiences ranged from a dramatic reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” to spooky gallery tours and my own somewhat morbid artifact highlight from our permanent collection.

Manager of Collection Impact, Hayley Rankin, talking with visitors about the Civil War era surgical tools that belonged to Dr. Sandidge of Metcalfe County, Kentucky. Photo Credit: Frazier History Museum.

I brought out a recent acquisition that tells the story of a Civil War era physician from Kentucky. Dr. Washington Sandidge served towns such as Wisdom and Edmonton in the Metcalfe County area for decades, interrupted only by a brief stint as a field surgeon during the Civil War. When Confederate troops passed through, Dr. Sandidge was forced to come along and treat wounded soldiers on the battlefield, Union & Confederate alike.

Surgical tools from Dr. Sandidge’s field kit, c. 1860. Photo Credit: Frazier History Museum.

Amputation saw from Dr. Sandidge’s field kit, c. 1860. Photo Credit: Frazier History Museum.

What I found a bit spooky though were all his different surgical tools from his field kit and other instruments he acquired throughout his career, such as a syringe from around 1900. While the tools were essential for operations that could save lives, the thought of cutting into (and limbs completely off) people during 19th century medical practice was slightly gruesome, to say the least. This was a time of paying grave diggers on the black market to acquire cadavers for anatomy lectures and doctors dueling each other over patients and proper practice. It was the chaotic, darker side of medical history that preceeded advancements in germ theory, sterilization, and formalized medical associations.

To give visitors an idea of how Dr. Sandidge used his tools, I created a matching game with picture & word cards showing individual tools and their corresponding names. Many people could easily match the scalpel and amputation saw, but the tenaculum and trocar were tricky!

This was definitely a Spooky Saturday to remember - see you at the next Frazier Family Day!