Accession No

6599

Brief Description

didactic anatomical model of a frog with five accompanying guides to physiology, English, mid-20th Century

Origin

England; Cambridge [attributed]

Maker

Class

biology; demonstration

Earliest Date

1925

Latest Date

1965

Inscription Date

Material

wax; plaster; metal; canvas; paper (paper, cardboard); paint

Dimensions

1070mm (depth) x 1070mm (width) x 520mm (height)

Special Collection

Provenance

Transferred from the University Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ on or before 24/05/2013. Previously used for teaching in the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge.

Inscription

Description Notes

Didactic anatomical model of a frog with five accompanying guides to physiology, English, mid-20th Century.

6599.1 Large anatomical teaching model of a frog. Model demonstrates the frog’s muscles and skeleton; there are 64 numbered muscles. Model sits on a large square mirror with wooden frame so students could see the muscles on the underside of the frog. Skeleton is in realistic colours, but muscles are painted in a variety of bright colours (assumedly for referencing whilst teaching). Highly tendinous parts of the muscles are painted silver.

Frog is in quite poor condition. Some sellotape and cotton string holding some parts together. Many muscles and parts of muscles have broken off and there is a white translucent ‘Really Useful’ box containing 6 bags of various muscles/parts and their numbers. Potentially this could meant that the frog is incomplete, as it’s unclear if these muscles are a whole or are only a part of a muscle.

Additionally, in some places the paint is flaking on the muscles both in the bags and on the frog. In some places the wax exterior has come away from the canvas(?) interior structure. Some of the muscles on the frog are also breaking away from where they are joined to the bone structure.

6599.2: 5 keys (labels) to the frog’s muscles in cardboard with paper interior. All 5 keys have some degree of annotations in ink, mostly indicating if the muscles are on the left, median or right sides.

Condition: poor, complete (?)

References

Henry Schmidt; 'Frogs in the classroom'; Explore Whipple Collections online article; Whipple Museum of the History of Science; University of Cambridge: https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-whipple-collections/frogs/frogs-classroom

Events