The Crawford W. Long Museum in Jefferson, Georgia will hold a special exhibit opening for its new Civil War Medicine Exhibit on April 15 and April 16.
Apr13
Tag Archives: Crawford W. Long Museum
Jan15
Crawford W. Long Museum Opens Wall of Fame Exhibit
Wall of Fame - Dave Rosselle photo
Plaques on the Wall of Fame celebrate the names of almost 600 individuals, families and businesses who donated time and money to create and develop the museum which opened in 1957.
Speaking to the one hundred guests—including relatives of the museum’s founders—Jefferson Mayor Jim Joiner said the exhibit honors “those whose vision led them to create an educational memorial to Dr. Crawford Long on the site of the first use of anesthesia for surgery, a discovery now considered America’s greatest contribution to modern medicine.”
In 1951, Jackson Herald publisher T.P. Williams and Crawford Long biographer Dr. Frank Kells Boland met with the Georgia Historical Commission in to discuss the creation of the museum. The commission said it would provide half of the funding for the purchase of a building if the citizens of Jefferson could raise the money. The local fund-raising drive was successful in less than a year.
The Crawford W. Long Memorial Museum Association was incorporated in 1955. Officers included those who had led the fund-raising drive: Frary Elrod, Storey Ellington, Robert Bailey, Edmond Garrison, Morris Bryan Jr., Thomas Bryan, Jack Davidson, and T.P. Williams. The museum is now owned by the City of Jefferson with the ongoing support of the Crawford W. Long Association.
Association board president Roxane Rose presented museum projects manager Lesa Campbell with a bench in honor of her late mother Sallie Holsonback who died last September. The bench was placed in the museum’s 1850s Pendergrass Store building.
Today’s dedication ceremony coincided with the first anniversary of the museum’s re-opening after a two-year restoration project that included exhibit upgrades and structural renovations to the facility’s historic buildings. During the past year, over 2,000 visitors and 43 groups have toured the museum.
Last year, visitors attending the museum’s re-opening came out in force on a bitterly cold day. Today’s guests attended the Wall of Fame dedication while weathermen were broadcasting winter storm warnings. (The six-inch snowfall held off until everyone got home.) With luck, Mother Nature will be more accommodating for upcoming events, including a March 30th Doctors Day celebration and the opening of a Civil War medicine exhibit on April 15th.
Nov13
Crawford W. Long Museum Included in Civil War Sites Guidebook
The Crawford W. Long Museum in Jefferson is among the 350 historic sites included in Crossroads of Conflict: Guide to Civil War Sites in Georgia from the University of Georgia Press.
The entry, which includes a photograph of the museum’s historic 1858 Pendergrass Store, notes that the facility “honors the physician Crawford W. Long, who attended the University of Georgia where he roomed with Alexander H. Stephens, the future vice president of the Confederacy. Long is credited as the first physician to use ether for surgical purposes.” Long served in the Athens, Georgia Home Guard and as a surgeon for the Confederacy.
Written by Barry L. Brown and Gordon R. Elwell, the Georgia Civil War Commission publication is an expanded update of the 1994 edition of the guidebook. The 304-page new edition, which arranges Georgia sites into nine regions beginning with the Chickamauga Battlefield in the northwest, includes 65 black and white photographs, 190 color photographs and images, and twenty maps.
According to the University of Georgia Press, “The impact of the Civil War on Georgia was greater than any other event in the state’s history. Approximately eleven thousand Georgians were killed and the state suffered more than one hundred thousand in total casualties. Georgia was extremely influential in this nation’s most tragic conflict, and the war touched every corner of the state.”
Born in Danielsville, Georgia, Crawford W. Long (1815-1878) first used ether for surgical anesthesia on March 30, 1842.
“Do a Georgia resident, friend planning a cultural tourism vacation to the South, or student of the Civil War might enjoy this guidebook? If so, click the Share This button below to send a link by email or recommend this post on your favorite social site.”
Coming Attractions on Malcolm’s Round Table
November 17 – An interview with author Vila Spiderhawk
November 21 – Second Annual Blog Jog Day
December 17 – Virtual VHP Dine-a-Round
Jan10
Vistors Brave Cold, Attend Museum Opening
The discovery of the use of ether as the first viable anesthesia for use during surgery by Dr. Crawford W. Long in Jefferson, Georgia on March 20, 1842 looms very large as a medical milestone. It’s on a par with–and predates by over 20 years–Joseph Lister’s discovery of antiseptics for sterile surgery and Louis Pasteur’s germ theory of disease. That the discovery happened in a rough and tumble frontier town makes it all the more remarkable.
CWL Ribbon Cutting- Dave Rosselle Photo.
Mayor Jim Joiner (standing, brown jacket) said at a Chamber of Commerce preview party the day before that some said that Crawford W. Long’s discovery in 1842 successfully put the town of Jefferson asleep. But then he indicated that the work done revamping the museum on a $200,000 USDA Rural Development Grant was another example of the reality that the town is very wide awake.
Historic District Surrey Ride - Dave Rosselle photo.
A visitor from Massachusetts said, “I think what they’ve done is absolutely excellent. I received a degree in museum studies from Harvard and this is even better than the Warren Anatomical Museum at the University.”
After the long hours put in by Campbell, by Vicki (to Campbell’s right) and Karen (far right) (museum staff), by Frank and Terry (contract craftsmen), Beth (Mainstreet Manager) and by Barbara, Jackie, Jim, Gerry, Reggie and other volunteers, such compliments are a tonic. So too, the wide eyes, smiles and kind words of the visitors upstairs in the new Anesthesia History Exhibit, on the main flow in the completely redone Crawford W. Long gallery illustrating the ether discovery and Long’s family and education, and down in the 1858 General Store.
The day ended with a fund-raising dinner, conducted in two seatings at Fusion, that featured guided tours conducted by Campbell. At the end of the last tour of the evening, she said that it was a little daunting explaining the import of Long’s work and the features of the anesthesia machines to an audience that included practicing anesthesiologists, one of who is a Crawford W. Long expert.
Everyone who shares the long-term vision for a museum hopes, on any given day, to treat visitors to an interesting and educational world of wonders. But in spite of the aching backs and tired feet that result from putting on a great show, there’s the inevitable pull by the work yet to be done. There are always new displays to construct and more research waiting to be done. The world inside the museum is infinite and both the staff and the volunteers are wide awake with the possibilities.
Malcolm
Dec11
Crawford W. Long Museum Re-opens Jan 9
Jefferson, Georgia-–The City of Jefferson and the Crawford W. Long Museum Association, Inc., have announced the upcoming grand re-opening of the Crawford W. Long Museum to celebrate the completion of a two-year restoration of the facility’s three, interconnected buildings. The museum will open January 9, 2010, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The museum has been closed to the public for major structural renovations and exhibit upgrades since June 2008. The renovations were paid for in part through a matching $200,000 USDA Rural Development grant.
Historic Building Restoration
The two-story, brick 1880s former doctor’s office and pharmacy used as a medical exhibits gallery, received a new roof, including larger scuppers and downspouts, restored brick work and custom windows that are exact copies of the originals which were beyond repair. The project included Interior re-plastering, painting, rewriting, updated lighting, and new upstairs flooring.
Exterior Structural Brickwork
Craftsman Frank Resciniti at Work in Doctor's Office (Athens Banner-Herald Photo)
Updated Museum Exhibits
Since the interior of the Stovall and Medical Gallery buildings had to be cleared for the restoration work, project manager Lesa Campbell and administrative manager Vicki Starnes had an opportunity to modernize the interpretive exhibits in accordance with current museum best practices.
The Crawford Long Gallery has colorful new informational panels (see detail below) and artifact displays tracing Doctor Long’s heritage, medical practice, family life and his 1842 discovery of the use of ether for painless surgery.
“A lot of the Crawford Long exhibit tries to put him in his time and place,” said Campbell. “If you don’t understand the fact that Jefferson was a frontier town in 1842, you really don’t get the full measure of how amazing it was that someone here was the first person to apply anesthesia to a patient and be able to revive them.”
The upstairs–which had previously been closed to the public–now contains a new history exhibit that traces the evolution of anesthesia from the early use of towels, sponges and drop masks to the development of machines that measure, control and monitor a uniform concentration of anesthetic gases. Fourteen machines, in use between 1913 and 1970, are be on display.
The General store displays have been reorganized with new artifacts, displays and signage.
“Jefferson is privileged to be the home of such an important international event,” said Mayor Jim Joiner. “The development of a practical surgical anesthetic is considered America’s greatest contribution to modern medicine, so it is only fitting that Jefferson maintain a museum to commemorate Dr. Long’s discovery.”
The Crawford W. Long Museum was founded in 1957 by the Georgia Historical Commission and in 1974 the Crawford W. Long Museum Association assumed ownership. In 1979 the Museum building and exhibits were renovated, accomplished partly through contributions from the members of the Medical Association of Georgia and the Georgia Society of Anesthesiologists.
In 1986-87, an expansion program was carried out, enlarging the Museum into a three-building complex. This complex was owned and operated by the not-for-profit Association until ownership was transferred to the City of Jefferson in 2007.
Detail from a New Exhibit Panel
Admission to the Museum is $5.00 for adults and $4.00 for children (6-12) and $3.00 for students/military. Children 5 and under free. Beginning January 9, the museum will be open to the public during normal operating hours of Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. For more information about the grand opening, contact the museum at 706-367-5307.
Aug25
Crawford W. Long Museum Restoration
Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Georgia, was the first physician to use sulfuric ether as an anesthesia during surgery. This happened in 1842, and it has always amazed me that a man working as a doctor in what was then a hardscrabble frontier down had the education and vision to figure out why ether was so much better than chloroform.
The Crawford W. Long museum celebrates his achievement in what is still a very small town (about 9,000) about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta along I-85. Three buildings comprise the museum, including an 1858 general store and an 1880s brick building that served as a pharmacy and doctor’s office.
For the past 18 months, these buildings have been undergoing a major restoration effort which has included repairs to old brick, a new roof, leveling and painting the store, new flooring and new wiring. When the museum re-opens (probably in January) it will also have new rooms opened to the public filled with updated exhibits and many artifacts from the world of medicine of the 1800s and early 1900s.
A New Sign for the Museum
Since my wife has been directing the restoration, covered by a $200,000 USDA Rural Development Grant, I’ve had a front row seat from which to view the transformation of the structure, its exhibits and its programs.
If you are planning to visit northeast Georgia next year or travel to and from Atlanta via I-85, then I hope you will stop and see the museum after the grand re-opening. The museum’s web site has pictures of some of the restoration work and will announce the opening date. I’m really looking forward to it!
