There's A Surgery Museum In Illinois And It's Full Of Fascinating Oddities, Artifacts, And More
By Melissa Mahoney|Published October 19, 2021
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Melissa Mahoney
Author
I'm an east coast girl living in a west coast world. I grew up in New England before moving to SoCal for several years. I then lived in NYC or a year before moving to AZ in 2009. I worked in the entertainment industry for many years of my adult life and have a deep love for photography, writing, and traveling around the U.S. as well as to far-flung locations around the world. Travel is my life and writing about it is a dream!
If you’re the type of person who enjoys bizarre roadside attractions and oddities museums, you probably know that Illinois has no shortage of these places to visit. Located in Chicago, the International Museum of Surgical Science is a must-visit museum filled with fascinating artifacts and odd exhibits on surgery throughout the ages. It’s sure to be one of the most intriguing museums you’ll ever step foot in.
Established in 1954, the International Museum of Surgical Science has been educating visitors on the advancement of medicine and surgical techniques throughout the ages.
Housed in a Gilded Age mansion built in 1917 for socialite Eleanor Robinson Countiss Whiting, the museum's grand appearance is as impressive as the collection of medical instruments and displays held inside.
Over 7,000 medical artifacts, from prehistoric through modern times, can be found throughout the museum. Also on display in the galleries are over 600 pieces of fine art depicting medical and surgical scenes or notable people who contributed to the medical field.
Invented in the 1920s, the shoe-fitting fluoroscope (pictured here) was found in shoe stores around the country. It was used to show customers the bones inside their feet and was supposed to help find the perfect shoe fit. By the 1950s, this machine was banned when it was found that X-ray machines emit harmful radiation.
The museum also carries an example of an iron lung which was used to treat those who had polio. No longer in use today, it once helped polio patients who lost muscular control and could no longer breathe on their own.
Here's an odd artifact found at the museum: an artificial big toe that was found in the tomb of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy. Prosthetics have been around for thousands of years and, just by looking at this, you can see how far they have come since.
You can also view Peruvian skulls from 2000 B.C. The holes in these skulls were from a technique called trephination in which a hole was drilled into the head to relieve migraine pressure.
There was no anesthesia back then, so seeing this may make you feel grateful for the advancements in modern medicine!
The International Museum of Surgical Science is a fascinating museum filled with oddities and strange artifacts. Have you visited this museum in Chicago? If you have, what was your favorite exhibit? For more information, visit the museum’s website and Facebook page.
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