Mahogany kit from Revolutionary War
The mahogany kit measures 18.75 x 7 x 2, according to RR Auction. The kit contains: a capital amputation saw, with a wooden-handled instrument with a hexagonal nut to adjust the blade; a curved amputation knife; surgical scissors; and tissue forceps (possibly non-original). The interior is fitted with the instruments, and one (a scalpel) is absent. Nailed to the front edge is a very faint handwritten 19th-century identification label that is extremely difficult to read, but with enhanced contrast can be deciphered: “Used during the Revolutionary War by Dr. John Warren.” This kit was exhibited in a 1906 Harvard exhibition of surgical instruments, which was organized by Dr. J. Collins Warren (also known as John Collins Warren Jr.), the son of John Collins Warren and grandson of John Warren. A newspaper clipping from the Boston Herald of June 3, 1906, shows this second kit in the Harvard exhibition.