Sister Hippolyta’s legacy

 

A wax model attached to a black-painted wooden board, around which a white, folded fabric has been attached with needles. The wax model depicts the lower part of a patient’s face, particularly the mouth, with the top lip swollen.
A medical moulage depicting a syphilitic lesion on the top lip of a patient. The wax model was created by Sister Hippolyta. Beneath the wooden base of the moulage is a label with the printed text ‘Universitätsklinik für Hautkrankheiten Cöln Lindenburg’ and the hand-written diagnosis ‘Syphilis I. Primäraffekt der Oberlippe’. The wooden base is signed by the artist: ‘Sch. Hippolyta Aug.’. Photo: Helsinki University Museum / Sanna-Mari Niemi.

Stadin AO, the Helsinki Vocational College and Adult Institute, donated nine wax models, or moulages, to the Helsinki University Museum in 2013. Initially, no background information on the items was available, but the labels and signatures made it possible to deduce that the objects had been made by Sister Hippolyta and that they originated in Cologne, Germany. Using these snippets of information, it was possible to begin the detective work whose results I am presenting in this blog post.

Continue reading “Sister Hippolyta’s legacy”