History of Contraception Museum, Cleveland USAThe Percy Skuy private collection on the history of contraception is considered to be the largest in the world. It now resides at Case Western Reserve University’s Dittrick Medical History Center, having moved there in December 2004. It was previously housed at the Janssen-Ortho headquarters in Toronto, Canada, as Skuy was the Chairman of Ortho Pharmaceutical. The collection contains over 650 artifacts and 100 books. Skuy began his unique collection in 1965 with the aim of illustrating his lectures on birth control. He became intrigued by the many and varied ways by which humantity had tried to circumvent conception over the years. "With the limited knowledge people had, once motivated, they had to use what was readily available around them and some creative approaches were taken,” says Skuy. “Some were useless, some harmful and some could probably have shown a reasonable degree of effectiveness.” As is almost standard in the US, conservatives have raised objections to museum, but the University is unruffled by the fuss. "If people think no one should use contraception, they are entitled to their opinion," Skuy told Women's News in 2001. "But this is the history, this is what people did. "When we consider how this has now become
an everyday item, the answers should come through better education,
better use of the products, not negative legislation." Collection Highlights Beaver testicle tea, crocodile dung birth control, Casanova's birth control, animal skin condoms, 350 models of IUD, contraceptive pills from the sixties. Facts for the Visitor
Articles Museum
displays contraceptives from past eras - Women's News Note: May be referred to as the Contraceptives Museum
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