Exhibition Reviews

Country doctors

Doctor, doctor in the house. Temporary exhibition at the Bathurst and District Historical Museum, East Wing, Court House, Russell Street, Bathurst, NSW, March–April 2008. The museum opens for limited hours, Tuesday–Sunday, www.bathurstregion.com.au/visitors/, phone 02 6330 8455. Exhibition visited 15 March 2008.
Treasure troves of medical artefacts are to be found all over Australia and New Zealand, and not necessarily in government museums or the collections of professional bodies. The exhibition Doctor, doctor in the house has revealed that the city of Bathurst, on the central tablelands of the Great Dividing Range, is home to one of the most extensive regional collections in New South Wales.	1
The museum of the Bathurst and District Historical Society (BDHS) is housed in the East Wing of Bathurst's very beautiful Court House. Its permanent displays cover the social history of the region and there is an additional area set aside for temporary exhibitions like Doctor, doctor in the house. For curator Helen Pitcher this was the largest exhibition she had been involved with since becoming a volunteer at the museum two years ago.	2
In addition to items donated by local citizens over the years, the Society's medical history holdings are based on four main collections: the Rutherford, Basset, Brooke Moore, and Willman Optometry collections. These had been on display in a local doctor's rooms, but during renovations the display space was lost and the collections were subsequently transferred to the BDHS.	3
The Rutherford collection is believed to have been donated by the family of Dr. Laurence Rutherford (d.1922). Laurence was the son of James Rutherford, one of the buyers and subsequently the general manager of the famous coaching business Cobb & Co., who settled in Bathurst in 1862 when the company headquarters were transferred from Victoria to Bathurst. Many of the items in this collection date from the period when coaches carried rudimentary medical kits complete with drugs.	4
Like Dr. Rutherford, Drs Brooke Moore and Basset were also general practitioners in the town and their links go back to early European settlement of the district. It is clear from the diversity of the collections that their practices encompassed the whole gamut of country medicine.	5
Doctor, doctor in the house was a showcase for these collections, augmented by loans from individuals and the local hospital. The result was a diverse and fascinating exhibition. My visit came about because curator Helen Pitcher had put out a call for help in identifying some of the objects on display. As it turned out, members of the Collections of Health and the History of Medicine email discussion group (CHAHM-discuss) were able to assist by identifying all but two of the mystery items.	6
There were many interesting items on display and all had clearly written explanations and descriptions, except for those that were still awaiting identification at the time of my visit. Orthodox medicine and quack treatments were represented, along with nursing, surgery, first aid, maternal care and birth control. The specialities of dentistry, pathology, postmortem and optometry were all included.	7
While many of the objects were similar to those commonly found in other health and medical collections, their value is immeasurably enhanced by the fact that their provenance is known and that it relates to the maintenance of health in the Bathurst area.	8
With my background I was naturally interested in some of the less common items of surgical and nursing memorabilia. But in addition, one of the highlights for me was a very early x-ray apparatus. This exhibit was accompanied by a potted history of local priest and x-ray pioneer Father James Slattery plus, quite remarkably, an intact example of one of his glass x-ray plates from 1896 showing a clear image.	9
Also on display was a public health notifiable diseases register from the 1800s on loan from Bathurst City Library, providing a snapshot of how difficult life was on the goldfields. Any researcher in the public health field with an interest in infectious diseases would doubtless be delighted to peruse such a record.	10
Regrettably the exhibition was only temporary, ending in late-April 2008 to make way for another display. However the curator is hoping to instigate a rotating exhibition of selected objects in conjunction with Bathurst Hospital.	11
Displays on The Operating Theatre, Obstetrics and Paediatrics, and Radiology formed part of the exhibition Doctor, doctor in the house at the Bathurst and District Historical Museum. The x-ray plate taken by Father Slattery in July 1896 has a very old hand-written label stating: Gun-shot in hand. First Skiagraph for Medical purposes. Photographs courtesy of Helen Pitcher.
JUDITH CORNELL SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF ARTEFACTS OF SURGERY & MEDICINE (SPASM) Members of the Australian and New Zealand Society of the History of Medicine interested in joining the CHAHM-discuss email group should contact Judith at cornell@netspace.net.au

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