Henna Sinisalo – Object of the Month – Helsinki University Museum Flame

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”

On the right is a military-green rubber gas mask, with eyepieces facing towards the photographer. Next to it on the left is a darker green filter cartridge. At the bottom is a scale. — A civil defence gas mask from the late 1930s included in the collections of the Helsinki University Museum. The gas mask originally belonged to the University of Helsinki Department of Pharmacology. Photo: Helsinki University Museum.

The collections of the Helsinki University Museum include eight gas masks, of which seven are from the 1930s and intended for the civilian population. The University Museum has received the masks from hospitals and University of Helsinki departments. The collections also include an equine gas mask dating back to the 1930s or 1940s which is of an unknown origin.

In 2015 we made plans to place one of the civilian gas masks on display in the University Museum’s new main exhibition, The Power of Thought. However, we had to scrap these plans at the last minute when we discovered that the filters of old gas masks may contain asbestos.

In spring 2020 we decided to find out whether these suspicions were true. In this blog post, we explain how we investigated the matter and what we eventually found out.

Continue reading “Gas masks and asbestos”