A History of Claremont in 100 Objects Blog Series #1 “Radiant Therapy Machine”-Mary Garner Hirsch Collection

#1 “Radiant Therapy Machine”-Mary Garner Hirsch Collection

by Cooper Crane

 

This is a story about light, medicine, a Nobel Prize winner, and the body.  This is a story about how we view our bodies, and how we negotiate and reshape our bodies and physical self. This is a story about heliotherapy.

 

One of the more interesting objects in the Garner House is a strange metallic lamp. Made from a dull nickel, the metal shell is shaped almost like a decanter with a protruding funnel at one end. Standing about three feet in height, it is curiously out of place with many of the other items on display in the house. So, what is this strange object?

Heliotherapy lamp at Garner House, Claremont Heritage

I write this post sitting next to the lamp, in the same way a person would have done using the device in the early 20^th century. This particular lamp was part of the Garner family’s own daily lives. Our lamp was donated by Mary Garner Hirsch, granddaughter of Herman and Bess Garner, who built the Garner House.

Carbon Arc Lamp, Paul E. Johnson Company catalog (1925)

The lamp was built by the Paul E. Johnson Company, but there were many other companies who built similar devices. The builders’ plaque prominently displays, “Paul E. Johnson, Universal Therapeutic Lamps, Chicago.” The company advertised and sold models of lamps including Mercury Quartz, Carbon Arc, among others. Our lamp is an infrared model.

Paul E. Johnson Company logo

These lamps collectively were known as heliotherapy lamps and were first brought into use by Faroese-Danish physician Niels Finsen. Finsen had observed that specific forms of ultra-violet light were effective in treatment. He observed that exposure to UV light cause the destruction of Lupus vulgaris, a disease related to tuberculosis. Finsen called this treatment “heliotherapy” or therapy of the sun. For his efforts, Finsen was awarded the Nobel Prize, and his heliotherapy patents entered into medicine as a respected and important tool for early 20^th century doctors and clinicians.

Niels Finsen

Early heliotherapy treatments called for exposure to direct sunlight. This meant regular sunbathing, and because exposure was dependent on exposure of the highest amount of surface area possible this sometimes meant nudity for individual patients. But exposure to the sun was dependent on its availability.  At higher latitudes, in the winter seasons, or in periods of inclement weather this was not an option. Additionally, 20^th century morals and social standards of decency meant that there was stigma over the exposure of one’s own body in public. And so, for these reasons a market began to emerge for manufactures who could create artificial sunlight.

 

These lamps themselves became popularized as consumer objects for the home. Notable figures broadly supported and advocated for their regular use, including John Harvey Kellogg, brother of William Keith Kellogg, the founder of Kellogg cereals and benefactor of the later Cal Poly Pomona in Pomona, California. John Harvey Kellogg ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium and advocated for the use of heliotherapy machines. A man motivated by a desire to maintain Christian “modesty,” he opposed regular sunbathing but also recognized the importance of sunlight for one’s own health.

 

Battle Creek Sanitarium. (Medical Trade Ephemera Collection) Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.

For these reasons he invested in the design of artificial light sources that later became known as radiant therapy or heliotherapy lamps to provide dosages of artificial light in a home setting, preserving the modesty of women and men who used them. But Kellogg also believed that light was important for the invigoration and strengthening of the body, improving physical constitution. He therefore argued in favor of the use of radiant therapy devices as a preventative measure against disease. Kellogg had argued that “excluding ourselves from the light, we are depriving ourselves of the benefit of the most powerful of all known vital stimulants.”

 

Kellogg created a demand for radiant therapy machines in the home. People began to buy radiant therapy lamps and began to use them to supplement their immune system and functioning. Radiant therapy machines played into American ideas about technological progress, convenience and the advancement of ease in daily routine. Our radiant therapy machine was placed in the library to reflect this very fact; these machines would be used in addition to one’s personal schedule, not requiring them to dedicate additional time or to sacrifice their other functions.

 

An owner of a heliotherapy lamp would use the lamp in a setting they were comfortable in, such as perhaps sitting in a chair while reading. They would not be expected to have to make exceptional preparations in order to use their machine. It had to be as easy as flicking a switch. A user would point the lamp at their skin, and the light would then passively provide the benefits of solar irradiance.

 

Actress Dorothy Sebastian receiving treatment for bronchial congestion at MGM Studios, 1930. Fox Photos, Hulton Archive, Library of Congress.

Heliotherapy machines were then a representative element of early American attempts at negotiating the relationship between body and self. For individuals who used heliotherapy machines, their expectation was that they would be able to use these patented medical devices on-demand in order to improve upon their physical wellbeing and make the body better than it was. 

Heliotherapy machines were part of a larger social phenomenon from the early 20^th century where new ideas about health and self-improvement of the body emerged. Physical fitness, exercise and training were also seen to produce better people and were also commonly enthused by individuals such as John Harvey Kellogg. New kind of drugs and pharmaceuticals, including cocaine, aspirin and heroin were promised to cure all aliments and quickly too.

Patients at the Children’s Preventorium of Ramsey County play checkers while receiving “heliotherapy” under a sun lamp, ca. 1930. Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society.

As historian and professor of transatlantic studies Austin E. Loignon explains, heliotherapy advancements were also part of a transatlantic medical exchange, a dialogue of reform between the United States and European powers. One that demonstrated the technical advancement of the United States to the European world, and the sophistication of American industry and American society. The technology of heliotherapy lamps, and the physical fitness of Americans were part of a larger context of nationalist and frequently racially motivated debates about social progress.  Convenience and the ability to bring these medical marvels to the home were emblematic of a progressive society, one that many Americans wanted themselves to be a part of.

The idea of making a superior person was quite popular in the early 1900s and supported by individuals like Kellogg. This movement, known as the Eugenics movement, argued in favor of a framework of Social Darwinism. At its most extreme, Eugenics argued for the sterilization of what it deemed the infirm, unfit, or undesirable of society. Groups targeted as infirm, and unfit frequently were women, minorities, or homosexuals. Heliotherapy machines contributed to the Eugenics movement, and the desire for control of the human body, and intersected with other dramatic and racist demonstrations of the superiority of the White Body and Mind. At the same time as the popularity of technology of heliotherapy machines became popularized, events like the 1904 Olympics and St. Louis World's Fair held events like "human zoos" and compared human anatomy and physiology to rank arbitrarily defined racial categories.

 

Heliotherapy machines began to fall out of use in the 1930s, as the inappropriate use of specific types of devices, including burns and lesions caused by heat exposure from infrared lamps, and skin cancers caused by UV lamps began to emerge. Heliotherapy itself continues to be a practiced field of medicine under appropriate professional guidance and remains common in Europe but is less common in the United States.

 

It would be a mistake to say that we no longer seek light out for medicine. A quick search on Amazon or on Google will reveal dozens of kinds of light therapy devices. Salt crystal lamps, UV light for dermatological treatment, or even lasers for hair removal. Light is used for cosmetic and medicinal uses today, and still promises the same quick results and ease of use as those devices in the beginning of the 20^th century. The complex relationship that we have to the body, how we value it, how we judge it, and to technology and health still continues today and has evolved in new and unique ways. How for example, is genetic medicine comparable to promises made from light therapy? As we explore the historical objects of Claremont we begin to make connections to our daily lives and the rest of the world, and help ourselves make sense of the history all around us.

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A History of Claremont in 100 Objects is a blog series presented by Claremont Heritage and written and contributed to by its members. Based on the podcast A History of the World in 100 objects by the BBC and the British Museum, presented by former British Museum director Neil MacGregor. A History of Claremont in 100 Objects explores Claremont history through its material cultural legacies, placing objects important to the history and development of Claremont in larger relation to US and World History.

 

About the author:
My name is Cooper Crane. I am an archival intern with Claremont Heritage. I study history and anthropology with an emphasis on archaeology and the history of empire and environmental history at Pomona College in Claremont. I was born in Anaheim and have lived my whole life in Corona California, a city with a similar shared history to Claremont. I have degrees in history, anthropology and political science from Norco College California and am a certified California Climate Steward through the University of California Department of Natural and Agricultural Resources. I write to explore history through the material objects of history, and by exploring the elements of history that are unwritten. My current work at Claremont Heritage includes the curation of artifacts on display at the Garner House and the Claremont Packing House, the creation of artifact descriptions for our archives and contributing to A History of Claremont in 100 Objects.