Bedford’s birthing forceps with ebony handles and finger holes on either side by Tieman.

The Catholic Encyclopedia says of Gunning S. Bedford:  “He spent two years in foreign study and in 1833, when only twenty-six years of age, became professor of obstetrics in Charleston Medical College. From here he accepted a professorship in the Albany Medical College. He went to New York in 1836 and four years later founded the University Medical College, which became a great success.” Das puts the Bedford Forceps under the date 1846 but goes on to say “The following description of Gunning S Bedford’s forceps appears in Chailley’s practical treatment of midwifery edited by Bedford (1846)”. So raising the possibility that the forceps were earlier.

George Tiemann’s American Armamentarium Chirugicum on Page 63 in Appendix three says: “Tiemann is spelled alternately with one or two n’s suggesting either that he did not settle on a correct version until after 1830 (similar discrepancies occur in city directories of the period), or that subcontractors misspelled his name”.

• From the Phisick collection