19th Century Exercise Photos

Victorians shed their corsets and trousers to display stretching techniques:

The Wall Street Journal Reviews Burns Archive Exhibit:

Dr. R.B. Bontecou's photo of Pvt. Robert Fryer

Shadows and Light Somewhere in Time
Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2011
by William Meyers

Their faces are as telling as the wounds they suffered. Unlike Mathew Brady, who was a commercial photographer, Reed B. Bontecou was an army doctor: He took photographs of wounded Civil War soldiers in the first systematic attempt to study combat injuries and the procedures used to treat them. 

"Robert Fryer, private, Co. G, 52d N.Y. Vols., aged 18" stares at us from an oval frame. His kepi is on his head, and against his uniform jacket with its long row of brass buttons he holds his right hand: Only his thumb and forefinger are left. His look expresses neither pain nor self-pity, but his troubled attempt to understand his experience. 

There are two pictures of "David R. Templeton, Private Company A, 46 N.Y Vols., age 16, …. with gunshot wound of the head." 

The first must have been taken soon after he lost his eye, since the left side of his face is covered with blood and he seems to be suffering.
In the second photo, he has been cleaned up and dressed, his hair combed, but his one open eye expresses the same dazed puzzlement as Pvt. Fryer. 

Other soldiers have other parts of their bodies violated or missing. Dr. Bontecou's brief descriptions of where and how each patient was injured, the treatment he received and the outcome—"parts healed kindly," "gradually sank and died"—are posted in notebooks attached to the display cases. 

Excerpts from Walt Whitman's "Specimen Days" describing his experiences working as a nurse in Union military hospitals provide context. The photographs come from the extraordinary collection of Stanley Burns, a New York physician.

Civil War Exhibit Extended Until August 29

NEW YORK'S CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS

Photographs of Dr. R. B. Bontecou, Words of Walt Whitman. 

EXTENDED THROUGH AUGUST 29, 2011

Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street, NY, NY

From Broadway World.com

Thanks to an overwhelming response from visitors, the Merchant's House Museum, in partnership with The Burns Archive, will extend the exhibition of photographs of wounded New York soldiers by army surgeon and native New Yorker Dr. Reed B. Bontecou that opened in April to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. More-than 100 images of human ruination are captioned with quotations from Walt Whitman's 1882 memoir, Specimen Days, in which he recounts his own horrifying experience as a volunteer nurse. According to Whitman, "The real war will never get in the books."

William Stewart, 3 NY Independent Battery.
 Aged 20 years, wounded at Petersburg, March 25, 1865.
Gun shot wound of humerus, resection of head of right humerus. 

A View of One of the Displays of Bontecou's Photographs
on Exhibit at the Merchant's House Museum.

Psychiatric Images in The Ward (film), Village Voice Mention

We are pleased to announce that John Carpenter's The Ward opens today.The opening credits of the film feature several Burns Archive Images. Other films that feature Burns Archive images are The Haunting in Connecticut, The Others and Jacob's Ladder (+ many more).

The Village Voice mentions the images in the opening credits as one of the highlights of the film:


Ensemble Therapy: John Carpenter Returns With The Ward (Village Voice)
By Nick Pinkerton Wednesday, Jul 6, 2011


"...The Ward keeps its claws in a viewer, though it never wholly attains the promise of its opening credits. Beautiful and atmospheric representatives of a lost art, the credits themselves show images of madness, including woodcuts and antique lobotomy photos, on shattering panes of glass whose shards float across the screen in slow motion."


Other Psychiatric Images From The Burns Archive Can Be Found In Burns Press Titles: Patients and Promise: A Photographic History of Mental & Mood Disorders and

Seeing Insanity: Photography & The Depiction of Mental Illness

        

Also check out our past blog about Psychiatric Hospital Restraints HERE

Photo-Eye Picks Two Burns Press Titles In 'Book-A-Day' Curated Selection

We are pleased to announce that Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children was chosen as the 'Book-A-Day' June 22 and Shooting Soldiers Civil War Medical Photography by R.B. Bontecou was picked as today's feature. Our new releases will now be available on photo-eye as well as www.burnspress.com.

A Celebration for Bellevue Literary Press at The National Arts Club

Yesterday evening The Burns Archive was pleased to celebrate the anniversary Bellevue Literary Press's Pulitzer Prize winning title Tinkers. There were dramatic readings by actors Louis Cancelmi, Kathleen Butler and Bob Jaffe. The books read were Tinkers by Paul Harding, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Widow by Michelle Latiolais and The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak. 

(The Burns Archive contributed the WWI photo upon which The Sojourn's cover was based.)

Bellevue Literary Press raises important issues that affect us all regarding illness, the human experience in the practice of medicine, and science policy, promotes science literacy in unaccustomed ways, and contributes to society new tools for thinking about our world. http://www.blpbooks.org/

Dr. Burns was happy to hear author Paul Harding mention that he was very interested in some postmortem photography books he had been eyeing in a local rare book shop for years. To Harding's surprise Dr. Burns explained that he was the creator of those books and that they are The Burns Archive's Sleeping Beauty Series. They were both happy to trade works.

New York Times: The Local East Village Covers Burns Archive Civil War Exhibit

Selections from The Burns Archives. Montage by Tim Milk. All photos courtesy The Burns Archive.

We are pleased to announce that our exhibition at The Merchant's House Museum was featured by The New York Times Local by Tim Milk. To read the article The Pain of War at The Merchants House click HERE.

If you still haven't made it to The Merchant's House to see the exhibit there is still time!

New York's Civil War Soldiers – 

Photographs of Dr. R. B. Bontecou, Words of Walt Whitman.

Through Monday, August 1

Merchant's House Museum

29 East Fourth Street, New York, NY 10003

Open 12 to 5 p.m., Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. 


To purchase our new photography book Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography by R. B. Bontecou visit www.burnspress.com.

Still Breathing: Respiratory Images From The Burns Archive

This is a classic pose of a French physician listening to a patient’s chest with a monaural stethoscope. He is demonstrating the proper use and position of the instrument. European physicians used and posed with monaural stethoscopes until the mid-1930s. The monaural stethoscope invented in 1818 by French physician, Rene Laennec, remained the standard instrument for examining the chest in much of the world, because of European influences. In 1855, an American, Dr. G. Cammann, produced a practical and superior instrument, the binaural stethoscope with flexible rubber tubing. The binaural scope not only offered better acoustics but ambient sound was drowned out because both ears were used. Another major advantage is illustrated in this photograph. Not only did the short, about 7 inch, monaural instrument require physician to get close a patient who often had severe, contagious, infectious disease but the instrument also had to be placed squarely on the skin, again putting the physician uncomfortably close. The long rubber tubes of the binaural stethoscope allowed the physician to listen to the chest at a safer distance.

The population in a city’s poor and immigrant neighborhoods often mistrusted mainstream doctors. They preferred to be treated by self-medication and non-traditional therapies offered by local practitioners or street vendors. Too often the ailment turned out to be tuberculosis. While this nineteenth century scourge cut across all social classes it particularly struck those living in poorly ventilated cramped, city slums. This well dressed street doctor advertises his cough elixir to Londoners in 1877 claiming “Prevention better than Cure”. The doctor’s high shoes indicate a shortened leg-problem. English social photographer, John Thomson, took this picture for his book on street life in London. Patent medicines appeared to help most patients, as their base was usually alcohol, opium or some other powerful agent. 

The color dramatically draws attention to the raw, eaten away appearance of this patient’s face. Lupus, was a generic term used to describe any of the conditions in which a patient’s face looked like as thought it had been chewed by a wolf (Latin ­lupus). This is a case of superficial and deep tissue infection by tuberculosis. Cutaneous manifestations of tuberculosis were quite common in the pre-antibiotic era and had to be differentiated from syphilis. These ‘lupus’ patients often wore masks or covered their face when in public. Because the public could not often identify the difference between the facial deformities caused tuberculosis from those caused by syphilis, social ostracism became the norm.

There was one problem with extensive loss of the nose that was difficult to hide, the dreaded infection ‘ozena.’ Ozena was an ailment of much prominence in the pre-bacteriological/antibiotic era because it accompanied many infectious and neoplastic diseases of the nose. Ozena is derived from the Greek word meaning ‘to stink’. The infection of the nasal cavities resulted in a foul nasal discharge and a fetid breath. Nasal sprays or the inhalation of various chemical vapors were often prescribed. With the development of bacteriology the organisms causing ozena were identified as Klebsiella ozena and Bacillus foetidus. With the conquest by antibiotics of tuberculosis and syphilis ozena is mainly seen today as a manifestation of atrophic rhinitis, a marked degeneration of the nasal mucosa. This occurs most commonly as a hereditary malady but is also associated with the injudicious use of nasal sprays and drops.

Physicians advertising began as photographic technology improved and the costs reduced. In Terra Haute, Indiana, Dr J. S. Gordon promoted himself as ‘The Developer of The Lung Renovator - The Great Lung Therapy.’ Lung disease was the number one killer in the nineteenth century and some physicians capitalized on the publics need for a therapy. Some of the efforts were laudable while others were not.

Under developed lungs with concomitant respiratory distress is among the serious problems a premature infant faces and one of the leading causes of their death. One of the marvels at the turn of the century was the invention of the incubator by Marx of New York. The incubator was used to treat and nurture premature infants delivering warm air to a vented closed heated container. The simple warmth helped babies survive. Although today younger and younger infants are surviving because of the care received in the modern neonatal units, respiratory function remains one of the major hurdles.

It was the pioneer work of Danish physician, Neils Ryberg Finsen, M.D. (1860-1904) in light therapy that set other minds working to develop a wide range of light treatment modalities from heliotherapy to the sun lamp. In 1893, in Copenhagen, he began his experiments showing ultraviolet rays either stimulated growth or killed the bacteria in lower organisms. In further research he studied the effect of light on living organisms and by 1896, had created the field of “phototherapy.” Finsen was able to demonstrate that invisible ultraviolet light, had therapeutic value.

In the last decades of the nineteenth century Edward Livingston Trudeau, M.D. (1848-1915) and others established the efficacy of rest and fresh air treatment for tuberculosis and other chronic lung conditions. By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century hundreds of outdoor hospitals, sanitariums and rest homes were established in the United States. The most common type of tuberculosis quarters were associated with an established hospital.  On hospital grounds hundreds of private isolation huts as seen here were built. Nurses and doctors made rounds on the patients as if they were on one huge ward. Many patients were housed for extended periods of times sometimes for years. In the charity hospitals of the era working class patients were housed in long wards with outdoor terraces or in good whether beds or cots were brought outside for their use. In some localities public and social conscious societies paid for patients to have some time of the year at special isolation camps.

More In-depth Accounts Of These Stories and Many Others Can Be Found In:

RESPIRATORY DISEASE: A Photographic History, 1845-1945 (4 Volumes)

Civil War Round Table 60th Anniversary Dinner

Former President Howard Simon (A Surgeon) About to Cut the Cake with a Civil War Sword
The CWRT of New York was organized in 1951 to keep alive the history of the Civil War.

It should not surprise anyone that many people remain deeply interested in that unusual period of American history from 1861 to 1865. The Civil War, known by many other names in different parts of the country, has been romanticized and militarily dissected more than any other war in history.

To help keep the history of the time alive, a number of men and women organized The Civil War Round Table of New York in 1951. They included reporters, historians, professors, military personnel and many others. Over the years, more than 175 such organizations have brought together people interested in the war.

To Learn More Visit the NY Civil War Roundtable Website HERE

Click Below to See a Larger Version of the Slideshow

CBS NEWS Coverage- Cancer in the 1800s

CBS News Heathwatch has produced another feature with Dr. Burns- Cancer in the 1800s: 23 Rare Photos From the Burns Archive. View images ranging from the first surgical procedure involving the anesthetic sulfuric ether to a remarkable story of the removal of a giant ovarian tumor. Please click HERE to view the feature.

America's war on cancer? With 600,000 Americans dying of the disease each year, we're still a long way from declaring victory. But doctors have come a very long way in their abilities to detect and treat cancer - as these 19th Century photos make abundantly clear. They appear courtesy of New York ophthalmologist Dr. Stanley B. Burns, whose collection of early medical photography is one of the world's largest.

New York’s Civil War Soldiers- The Exhibition & Opening at The Merchant's House Museum

Below are images from the installation and opening of New York’s Civil War Soldiers: Photographs of Dr. R. B. Bontecou, Words of Walt Whitman. The Merchant's House Museum, built in 1832 served as an ideal location for the display of the Burns Collection's Civil War photography and ephemera. After a lecture in the period front parlor and book signing on the lower level, guests enjoyed a warm spring evening in the 'secret garden'. Everyone seemed to be able to enjoy the hors d'œuvres despite a sensitive yet graphic lecture depicting hospital gangrene and amputation.

(All Images © The Burns Archive)

Visitors Enjoy the 7th Regiment Display

Dr. Burns Adding Finishing Touches

The Tersa Viele Civil War Photo Album

Display Case With Civil War Surgical and Bone Specimen Photos
Along with an Amputation Kit

Stereoviews, Brady Images, a Tintype of Volunteer Nurses

Postwar Books, Medals, and Stereoviews Among Other Items

Some Battlefield Images, an Ambrotype of a Confederate Solder,
The New York Herald & Harper's Weekly Papers

One of Four Display Shelves/Tables of Bontecou Medical Images
With Walt Whitman Excerpt from Specimen Days

More Bontecou Images Below the Table

Shelf of Bontecou Large 'Teaching Album' Photos
(The Second Shelf Displays 'Contributed' Images) 

Dr. Burns Gives Jeff Rosenheim of
The Metropolitan Museum of Art a Special Tour

Guests Peruse Display Cabinets at the Reception

In the Garden

CLICK BELOW TO SEE THE SLIDE SHOW LARGER

Reminder- Civil War Photography Lecture & Reception Tonight

Dr. Burns Will Lecture on

The Wounded Civil War Solder-

New York’s Civil War Soldiers:

Photographs of Dr. R. B. Bontecou, Words of Walt Whitman

LECTURE AND BOOK SIGNING TONIGHT, MAY 3, 6 P.M.
OPENING EXHIBITION RECEPTION TO FOLLOW AT 7 PM

If you wish to attend the lecture- please RSVP as it is nearly full!

RSVP TO education@merchantshouse.org or 212-777-1089

The Merchant’s House Museum

29 East Fourth Street (Between Lafayette and Bowery), New York, NY 10003

PREVIEW IMAGES FROM THE EXHIBITION

The Center Image is a Page from Dr.Bontecou's Wartime Album
The Larger Images Are From His Later Album
Below is the Sign From Bontecou's Private Practice

A Civil War Amputation Kit, Stereoviews...
The Two Large Images at The Botton are of Rowland Ward- Rare Plastic Surgery Case
(Multiple Operations to Create a Lower Jaw by NY Surgeon Gurdon Buck 1807-1877)

The 7th Regiment Case. In The Corner is a Photo of Charles Cunard Co A 7th NY
Wounded April 7th 1865 at The Battle of Bachelor's Home  

Dr. Stanley Burns at The Merchant's House Museum

UPCOMING LECTURE AND BOOK SIGNING MAY 3: THE WOUNDED CIVIL WAR SOLDIER

LECTURE AND BOOK SIGNING TUESDAY, MAY 3, 6 P.M.
OPENING EXHIBITION RECEPTION TO FOLLOW AT 7 PM


THE WOUNDED CIVIL WAR SOLDIER:
PHOTOGRAPHS BY R.B. BONTECOU FROM THE BURNS COLLECTION

**Please RSVP Space is limited, particularly for the 6 pm reading
RSVP TO education@merchantshouse.org or 212-777-1089

The Merchant’s House Museum
29 East Fourth Street (Between Lafayette and Bowery), New York, NY 10003


Dr. Burns will show, for the first time, exclusive images from the private photo albums of Reed Brockway Bontecou, MD. A significant new chapter in Civil War history is revealed with this first Exposé of the wartime clinical photographs of Dr. Bontecou. Michael Rhode, Chief Archivist, Otis Historical Archives has noted “Dr. Burns has done the medical and photographic history communities a great service by rescuing and making these images available....”


The Burns Collection houses Dr. Bontecou’s four original Civil War albums as well as medical equipment and ephemera relating to his personal life. Bontecou’s carte de visite album is the premier medical photograph album of the Civil War. No other large compilation of wartime clinical images exists, with over 570 images. Almost all the photos were taken during the war or immediately after in the spring of 1865. The public and the historical community have never before seen most of these images.


Advanced copies of Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography By R.B. Bontecou will be available at the lecture for $50.


This lecture is in conjunction with the The Merchant’s House Museum exhibition 
New York’s Civil War Soldiers – Photographs of Dr. R. B. Bontecou, Words of Walt Whitman
Exhibition runs through Monday, August 1, 2011

Sleeping Beauties: Memorial Photographs from the Burns Archive- Lecture and Installation Views

APRIL 14- MAY 31 2011- 

Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery

The Burns Archive is pleased to announce that the installation, reception and lecture for our Baltimore postmortem exhibit was a great success. Special thanks goes to Tom Beck, Chief Curator of the Albin O. Kuhn Gallery and his staff. Stay in touch, we will be posting a video of the lecture soon.

With over 300 linear feet of paper images and 6 cases containing ambrotypes, tintypes, daguerreotypes and more- it is the largest postmortem photography exhibit to date. 

For as much as people of the 21st century avoid the subjects of death and postmortem photography, those of the 19th century embraced it. The living were depicted with their deceased loved ones with whom they were often not portrayed previously. The personal nature of postmortem imagery frequently makes it difficult for us to view memorial images from the past much less from our own time. This exhibition will survey memorial photography from the 19th through 21st centuries and show how the artistic efforts of the photographers contributed to the emotional qualities of the images. The imagery connects us across the generations to those who would have died unnoticed had they not been given by photographic means a kind of immortality.

Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery . University of Maryland, Baltimore County . 1000 Hilltop Circle . Baltimore MD 21250

Dr. Stanley Burns

Installation View, First Room

Postmortem Photo-Montage Images (Spirit Photo on Far Right)

Postmortem Images with Family

Contemporary Images by Todd Hochberg

Mourning Dress

One of Six Cases

Coffin Plates

First Case With Daguerreotypes & Ambrotypes of Children

Second Case With Daguerreotypes & Ambrotypes of Children

Dr. Burns Lecturing about His Postmortem Collection

Reception Following the Lecture

Dr. Burns With Tom Beck (Chief Curator)

More images from the exhibition below

CLICK BELOW TO VIEW A LARGER VERSION OF THE SLIDESHOW

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