Saturday, September 12, 2026

Art Of Anatomy

 Technology has developed over time to help doctors diagnose patients, looking into the body without being invasive. These include the x-ray, the ultrasound, CT scans, and MRI machines. The last time I was in an MRI machine was when I broke my nose. It was a relaxing experience.


In the 1950s, some indigenous peoples were removed from their communities to undergo treatment for tuberculosis. To this day, owing to the shortage of doctors in the far north, Inuit are often brought south for treatment. A parka made by Augatnaaq Eccles commemorates this.


Doctor Maude Abbott was one of the first women to practice medicine in Canada. She also became chief curator of the medical museum at McGill University, where she would make the museum a classroom for medical students.


These illustrations date to the 19th century, from medical schools in France.


Skirting the edge between one thematic area and another is a display case containing a one-man  Canadian submersible, the Deep Rover.

Friday, September 11, 2026

As Time Goes By

 We start today where we left off, with printing.


Typewriters were part of that process. Some are very old indeed, while others not so much.


This looks complicated. The linotype machine used molten metal as part of its process in casting lines of type.


Here we have a display case filled with different ways to listen to music.


Antique clocks and antique phones.


Old computers, and old cameras.


Above, a radio, camera, and old television.


Another radio, and a pinball machine.


I moved off from Artifact Alley into one of the thematic sections, this one dealing with science and medicine. Here we see physicians' tools, many of which are not so different today.


William Osler was a Canadian doctor who taught at McGill. He became hugely influential as a medical doctor and teacher, emphasizing that the classroom should be the patient's bedside. He would later become one of the founders of the world renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital, and then teach at Oxford.

Thursday, September 10, 2026

Tools Of The Trade

Here we have items suggested by science fiction, some of which have become real world applicable.


The HitchBOT was a Canadian experiment, a hitchhiking robot that crossed Canada. This is one of two. The other was unfortunately destroyed in the United States.


A cabinet filled with tools, along with some large stationary ones on top.


This includes sewing machines.


And more tools, these for measurement.


The next cabinet looks at glass and its role in lights.


Old fashioned elegant street lights are displayed with telescopes, one older and the others more contemporary.


Printing presses fundamentally changed the world, allowing for the transfer of information and knowledge on a wide scale.

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Within Artifact Alley

 Continuing where I left off yesterday, more inside Artifact Alley.


This is a boundary marker.


Some old fashioned tools are seen here.


Here we have an amphicar, a unique vehicle capable of going into the water.


Steamships and sail ships are represented here in model form.


The bikes overhead caught my eye.


Mounted above, a very old computer console and a robotic arm.


While below them is an electron microscope dating to the 1950s.


Relics of another time- models of satellites and missiles. The time of the Cold War.