[photographs, medical] Five albumen photographs of a horse drawn wagon mobile hospital treatment unit

[no place of publication stated]: [no publisher stated], 3rd Qtr 19th century. Good. A set of five albumen image. Image sizes vary from 5 x 10 inches to 6 7/8 x 7 inches, etc. These images appear to be documentary in nature, and taken in an intentional series. Inked in black on each verso is "Cont(?) by Dr Nicholaysen" or "by Dr. Nicholaysen" Inked in red on each recto is "Contr. Photo No. 1819" through "Contr Photo 1823." Additionally portions of each of the objects in the images are marked with numbers and/or letters. These images came to us as part of a very large, now dispersed archive with an overall medical theme. Already fragmentary when we purchased (truncated) them, we have arranged them by sequence numbers and theme.

Image 1819 depicts a tent with various kinds of beds or chairs for patients. Images 1820 and 1821 depicts a wagon used for transporting patients along with what looks to us like a metal frame that can be affixed to the top of the wagon to strap patients in various positions just like many hospital beds have. Image 1822 is a lineup of a variety of conveyances that would have been part of a mobile operation. Several appear to be storage cabinets with many drawers, another a very large chest (for blankets?). Still another is a short wagon to convey medical surgical kits (see our inventory #28952 for an example of the kind of cases that might have been "installed" in one of these wagons). Image 1823 depicts many more wagons, boxes for transporting materials, and a buggy for two people.

Dr. Nicholaysen may be one Dr. Julius Nicholaysen, a Norwegian professor of medicine:

"He finished his secondary education in 1849 and graduated from the Royal Frederick University with the cand.med. degree in 1856. He worked in Christiania, Kragerø and Møre before becoming a surgeon for army companies in Stockholm (1857-1860) and Christiania (1862). He was hired at Rikshospitalet in 1863; from 1867 to 1870 he was a research fellow at the university (including thirteen months in the United States). He was a professor at the university and chief physician at Rikshospitalet, until retiring from both posts in 1908. His special field was surgery, but he was also a prominent scholar in dentistry. He was the first in Norway to perform ovarectomy (1866), resection in the knee (1881) and resection in the bowel (1885). He also contributed significantly to the introduction of antiseptic, later aseptic methods in surgery. He chaired the Norwegian Medical Society in 1880, received an honorary degree at the University of Copenhagen in 1879 and was a fellow in the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1875. He was decorated as a Knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1889; upgraded to Commander in 1897" (Wikipedia). (Inventory #: 28960)