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Jewett’s Patent Artificial Leg.
Washington D.C.: Philp & Solomons, Stationers, [ca. 1867]. Chromolithographic broadside, 14” x 11.75”, plus margins, decorative border. CONDITION: Very good, light creasing and a few minor stains. An unrecorded broadside advertising artificial legs manufactured by a Boston-based company in the period immediately following the Civil War. The broadside reads in part: “These limbs are manufactured by the Patentee under a special Contract with the Government and supplied to the soldier free of any charge. The Patentee claims for this limb a superiority over all other patents for its greater strength, lightness, perfect finish, simplicity of mechanical arrangement and graceful and noiseless movements…So closely does it imitate the natural motions of the foot & limb in favorable cases as not to betray its use. The mechanical parts of this leg are simple & substantial not liable to get out of order easily…Soldiers requiring limbs can call at the manufactory at any time between 8 A.M. & 6 P.M. If unable to call they will be waited upon at the Hospital, by addressing a note to the Office.” Born in Lebanon, Maine, George B. Jewett (1818–1886) was a professor of Latin and modern languages at Amherst College from 1850 to 1854, and later became an ordained minister in Nashua, New Hampshire and in Salem, Mass. A dabbler in prosthetics, he developed a new artificial limb that was used by amputee veterans after the Civil War, which he patented just months after the Confederacy’s surrender at Appomattox. The legs included a self-oiling mechanism which allowed the limb to maintain maximum flexibility despite inclement weather or owner neglect. Jewett’s company, which operated from 1863 to 1871, was headquartered in Boston but he had offices in Salem, Mass. as well. Jewett's Leg Co. was chosen for the state contract in North Carolina, which ran a program for veterans requiring artificial limbs. North Carolina became the first of the former Confederate states to offer artificial limbs to amputees. The contract called for Jewett to set up shop in Raleigh. In five years, 1,550 vets contacted the state for help with their artificial limbs. The Washington, D.C. stationery company Philp & Solomons was co-founded by Franklin Philp and Adolphus Simeon Solomons, a prominent Jewish philanthropist with close ties to Abraham Lincoln and co-founded the American Red Cross with Clara Barton. Philp & Solomons was one of several companies known to supply paper and writing materials to the government and the White House. Philp & Solomons also published Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the War (1865–66). No copies recorded in OCLC. REFERENCES: Benaim, Rachel D. "Why the Gettysburg Address Was Made to Last" at Tablet Magazine online; “Jewett, George B.” at Salem Links and Lore online.
Item #8129
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