How long have some of the artifacts been on display – such as the elephantiasis specimens, the giant hairball from the girls stomach, and the skeleton in the chair?
As with many museum exhibits, objects go on and off display depending on the topics to be addressed in the exhibits, and the focus of the curators creating the displays. We don’t have information from the old records that indicate when things were on exhibit, but the specimens in question have been in the museum’s collection for the following time periods: hairball: received by the museum in the 1970s. Many of the more well-known pieces (Lincoln bone fragments, Dan Sickles’s leg, etc.) have been on exhibit since they were acquired. Peter Cluckey was born in 1882, enlisted in the Army at age 17 just after the Spanish-American War, retired from the service after 3 years, and rejoined in 1904. Two months after his second enlistment he experienced joint pain and stiffness after a horseback mounted drill held in cold rain. After several medical examinations he was diagnosed with “rheumatism chronic, articular, affecting both hips, knees, and ankle joints, and the right elbow.” Over the next
