Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum to open new exhibition on 19th century American Medicine, with rare and never-before-seen artifacts, instruments and photographs

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum will explore the birth of modern medicine and its scientific breakthroughs with a new exhibition titled, Health, Healing & Addiction in 19th Century America. The exhibition will open on April 8 and run through Oct. 17, 2021. Admission will be included with the purchase of a guided tour ticket and available online.
This exploration will feature rare artifacts, instruments, costumes and photographs, drawn from those once owned by the Lockwood and Mathews families, as well as loans from major private collections and public institutions.
Displays will include such notable, nationally regarded collections as those of Dr. Donald Blaufox, Professor and University Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Nuclear Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Curator of MoHMA, and Chris Foard of The Foard Collection of Civil War Nursing, whose rare artifacts will be on view for the first time in the State of Connecticut and have been shown in major U.S. museums, including the National Gallery in Washington D.C. Mr. Foard was an advisor to the PBS series Mercy Street.
Public collection loans will include artifacts from the Visiting Nurse Service of New York as well as several institutions in Connecticut including the Greenwich Historical Society, Norwalk Public Library, Norwalk Historical Society, Wilton Historical Society, Westport Public Art Collections, Bethel Public Library, Kent Historical Society, and Old Saybrook Historical Society to name a few.
The exhibition will investigate what history can teach us about the Germ Theory, Civil War and its medical legacy, changes in nutrition and self-care, and the extraordinary breakthroughs in technology that rocked the medical establishment leading to the birth of modern medicine and public health.
This exploration will also bring to light unconventional treatments and rising addiction rates, which were pervasive in the 19th century through the unregulated and widespread access of popular and unregulated, over-the-counter “remedies” promising pain relief and improved health.
John Harley Warner, award-winning author and Avalon Professor of the History of Medicine at Yale University, served as the expert advisor for the exhibition, Health, Healing & Addiction in 19th Century America, which will be curated by Kathleen Motes Bennewitz and generously sponsored in part by CT Humanities.
Connecticut Humanities (CTH) is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. CTH connects people to the humanities through grants, partnerships, and collaborative programs. CTH projects, administration, and program development are supported by state and federal matching funds, community foundations and gifts from private sources. Learn more by visiting cthumanities.org.
The Museum’s 2021 cultural and educational programs are made possible in part by generous funding from LMMM’s Founding Patrons: The Estate of Mrs. Cynthia Clark Brown; LMMM’s Leadership Patrons: The Sealark Foundation; LMMM’s 2021 Season Distinguished Benefactors: The City of Norwalk and The Maurice Goodman Foundation; and LMMM’s 2021 Distinguished Benefactors for Education: The Daphne Seybolt Culpeper Memorial Foundation, Inc. The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is a National Historic Landmark. For more information on schedules, tour tickets and programs please visit lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, e-mail info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799.