American Surgical Instruments: The History of Their Manufacture and a Directory of Instrument Makers to 1990 (Norman Surgery Series, No. 9)

This is the first comprehensive history and directory of the American surgical instrument trade prior to 1900 and provides a wealth of information never before available. Though a great deal is known about the practice of surgery and the men who performed it in colonial and nineteenth-century America, very little is known about the makers and dealers who provided the tools for these great figures. Dr. Edmonson has created a much-needed resource for historians, curators, and instrument collectors alike.

From the foreword by John Kirkup, M.D., F.R.C.S.:
"In essence, this book provides a meticulous analysis of the medical, surgical, and dental instrument trades in America from the later years of the eighteenth century to the earliest years of our own . . .[T]he detailed Directory fills a notable hiatus with its exhaustive listing of companies . . . Here museum conservators, instrument collectors, and others will find answers to many questions of name, place, and time.

This is complemented by an absorbing introductory essay which emphasizes the former close cooperation of instrument makers with leading doctors and medical schools and how this determined the location and commercial success of businesses . . . In an extensive appendix, Dr. Edmonson reviews instrument manufacture in the nineteenth century . . . It is a great pleasure to write this foreword to Jim Edmonson's pioneering analysis of a craft industry that illuminates so positively a unique period in both American and surgical history."