Object Description
The S. Y. St George Expeditionary Medicine Box by Burroughs, Wellcome and Co., London, c.1924
A hinged rectangular japanned tin box with a green interior, and two extendable drawers. The interior with pullout drawers containing and extensive range of medicines, including unopened “Iron and Arsonic” many still unopnened.
Footnote
The medicine chest or box of japanned tin, complete with the majority of its original contents, many items unopened and unused. This model of medicine chest, known as the Tabloid, was made by Burroughs, Wellcome and Co. for many years. An advert in the Wellcome Collection illustrates the range of situations for which such a piece might have been useful
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kamxfreh
and the firm quickly hit upon the idea of supplying these chests free of charge to all of the major expeditions of the time. As a result, chests of this type were supplied to Henry Morton Stanley (now in the Science Museum)
https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co200243/medicine-chest-belonging-to-henry-morton-stanley-late-19th-century
President Teddy Roosevelt for his African expedition in 1909 (also in the Science Museum)
https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co196763/tabloid-medicine-chest-used-by-teddy-roosevelt-in-1909
and another example, supplied in 1924, was used in the Mount Everest expedition of that year
https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.26326272?searchUri=%2Fsite%2Fartstor%2Fopen-science-museum-group%2Ftabloidmedicinechestusedon1924mounteverestexpeditionengland1887-1924co194757-29915364%2F%3Fsearchkey%3D1752969600563%26so%3Ditem_title_str&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A5801a469e7f84b5dcbdda95e099a1e35&searchkey=1752969600563
Like the Everest example, our piece has red stencilled lettering on it, in this case revealing that it was supplied to the Steam Yacht St George. Originally built in 1890 and one of the most luxurious yachts on the seas, she sailed under the Royal Yacht Squadron burgee until co-opted for military work during the outbreak of WWI. By 1924 she had been purchased by the company Research Expeditions Ltd. The vessel was pressed in to service for a scientific expedition to the South Seas, designed to replicate in part Charles Darwin’s earlier expedition to the same area. The present medicine box would have been supplied at this point. The St George was equipped with up to date laboratories and photographic dark rooms and the exceptional maritime artist Montague Dawson, a very young man at this stage and not yet fully established, was commissioned as official artist for the voyage and tasked with recording views and events both for posterity and for transmission to publishers in London to be reproduced in a regular column in the Graphic newspaper. Dawson loved painting the many romantic islands as he called them and this project kickstarted his career.
Specimens collected on the voyage were donated to the Natural History Museum where they remain to this day, having made an important contribution to western knowledge about the flora and fauna in the South Pacific. The scientific team on the voyage published many of their findings in an article titled The Expedition to the South Pacific of the S.Y. “St. George.” Marine Ecology and Coral Formations in the Panama Region, the Galapagos and Marquesas Islands, and the Atoll of Napuka, published in Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh Vol. 55 Issue 2 in 1927.
The south sea voyage was dogged by technical issues related to illness on board the ship so there is no doubt that the present case and its contents would have been pressed into service. It is a fascinating artifact of the age of exploration and we are delighted to offer it for sale.
Closed: Height 8 inches, Length 15 inches, Width 10 inches
Open: Height 5 ½ inches, Length 33 inches, Width 10 ½ inches