Poster ad from the Pacific Anatomical Museum

San Francisco’s Pacific Anatomical Museum opened in 1865 at 318 Montgomery and had hundreds of exhibits, including wax figures of humans in various stages of disease. Louise J. Jordan collected masks, bones, skeletons, and preserved organs from all over the world. The museum operated at 751 Market during the 1880s and at 1051 Market from 1891 until fire overtook it in 1906 in the aftermath of the great earthquake. This poster from the California Historical Society Library dates from 1875.

Detailed descriptions of San Francisco’s Pacific Anatomical Museum based on a rare 235-page catalogue of the museum obtained in Idaho appear in Chapters 6 and 11 of Inside the Barbary Coast.

From the McIntosh Battery and Optical Co. Catalogue

The McIntosh Battery and Optical Co. on Market Street in San Francisco sold hundreds of intriguing electrical items to physicians all over the West Coast. In the 1890s, electricity was in vogue, and many thought electric current had curative powers. Many physicians embraced electro-therapeutics (and later X-rays) without really understanding their benefit...or risk.

This electro-thermal sauna unit is the setting for Chapter 26 of Inside the Barbary Coast.