Thursday, April 12, 2012

1950s Ethicon Suture Cat-a-log


My dad recently came across this cool/bizarre find at a book sale: A 1950s "Cat-a-log" distributed by Ethicon Suture Laboratories, Inc., that proves long before the days of LOLcats, people were still obsessed with anthropomorphizing our feline friends.

What is an Ethicon cat-a-log you ask? I'll let the introductory page do the explaining:

This is an unblushing "me too" booklet. The current epidemic of picture books prompted us to get in the act with one of our own, relating to fields of mutual interest - nurses, doctors, and their patients.

As to cats, we owe the name, at least, a salute. The larger percent of our business is in supplying with catgut - an age old misnomer for surgical gut made of sheep intestines. Further, we are happy that cats are not the source of this essential suture material, for many of us are fond of the beautiful little creatures.

Most of the captions are written by "our friends in the nursing profession," while the photographs were captured by Walter Chandoha, "a photographer who specializes in cats."

The black and white booklet - which apparently saw hundreds of thousands of printings throughout the 50s - is around 20 pages long. I've shared a few scans here, and if there's interest, I'll post the rest!

You mean...I'll have to carry bed-pans?

Schedule or no schedule, they're hungry NOW!

Damn it, Nurse, I asked for a suture...not a rope!

Night Supervisor/Operating Room Supervisor

Nurse...I had to ring that bell four times!

And now...the incision...

I've had better meals in a fox-hole

First Delivery

Well doctor, when you've had my years of experience...

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11 comments:

Amanda Fanning said...

This is awesome!!

Anonymous said...

That's a very unique find!

Leah said...

Didn't suture material used to be called "cat gut"?

Catsparella said...

@Leah "As to cats, we owe the name, at least, a salute. The larger percent of our business is in supplying with catgut - an age old misnomer for surgical gut made of sheep intestines. Further, we are happy that cats are not the source of this essential suture material, for many of us are fond of the beautiful little creatures."

Mrs. Vandertramp said...

Stephanie: Have you seen this regarding Chris Colfer? Very cool. http://www.ecorazzi.com/2012/04/11/chris-colfer-adopts-8-year-old-cat-from-shelter/

Catsparella said...

@Mrs Vandertramp Yes, thank you! I saw him write about it on Twitter and am working on a post about it! :)

Mrs. Vandertramp said...

I don't know who's cuter--Chris or Brian!

Lolcat Lisa said...

OMG....these folks accidentally invented the Lol-cat! Without all of the misspellings though.

Melody said...

Walter Chandoha was THE cat photographer of the 50s and 60s. There was a time when it seemed like any published cat picture was his work. It is good to see his work has survived.

starification said...

Aw, how cute!

Anonymous said...

OMG, I really want that book!! I'm in love with old book, and this is even better coz it's content is 50s-60s CATS!!OMG!! *dies*

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