Drake Artificial Leg

History

American limb maker John S. Drake used whale ivory in the construction of his devices. The description on the card comes directly from a testimonial about Drake’s leg, which appeared in the Boston Evening Gazette and was reprinted in the limb maker’s 1859 catalogue. For more on Drake’s devices and similar innovations in nineteenth-century prostheses, see Ryan Sweet’s free 2022 book Prosthetic Body Parts in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture.