George Washington's ivory denture
Queen Victoria's dental instruments
Toothbrushes through the ages
Saint Apollonia
The National Museum of Dentistry is renowned for its collection of dental treasures from the legendary to the whimsical, from George Washington’s not-so-wooden teeth to cartoon character toothbrushes featuring Fred Flintstone and Mickey Mouse. The 40,000-object collection of dental instruments, furniture, and artwork is one of the largest and most significant in the world. A substantial portion of the core collection traces its roots to the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, the world’s first college of dentistry founded in 1840, and the Museum continues to add to the collection.
Significant objects in the collection include:
- George Washington’s ivory lower denture
- Queen Victoria’s personal oral hygiene instruments
- The first earned dental diploma, dated 1841
- Toothbrushes ranging from the 1800s to the present
- Dentifrice containers, including one dating to the court of French King Louis XVI
- Dental furniture, including dental chairs dating to the early 1800s and the oldest known American dental cabinet (c. 1820)
- An 15th-century stained-glass image of St. Apollonia, patron saint of dentistry
- Extraction instruments dating from the 17th century, including the largest holding of dental extraction keys in the United States
- The world’s largest collection of dental advertising poster art
The McCauley Library of the History of Dentistry
The library holdings encompass significant early dental education texts, dental histories, reference resources and early dental journals, including a complete set of Dental Cosmos, a complete first series of The American Journal of Dental Science, early editions of Pierre Fauchard’s two-volume work on dentistry written in 1728 and a first edition of John Hunter’s History of the Human Teeth.
The archives hold significant documents and photographs and is a major repository for the papers of eminent dentists and dental historians such as Dr. Gardner P.H. Foley and Dr. Audry B. Davis. One of the most important documents is the Proceedings of the American Society of Dental Surgeons, 1840-1855, hand-written meeting minutes tracing the origins of organized dentistry in America.
Access to the library and archives is available by appointment; call 410/706-8704.
