Mill Valley doctor collects medical artifacts, offering a peek into the past

Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal

Mill Valley's Dr. Toni Brayer poses with some items in her medical artifacts collection at her home.

Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal

Some of the items in Dr. Toni Brayer’s collection of medical artifacts include a formaldehyde fumigator by the Cenol Company in Chicago in its original box, circa 1919, and a bottle of constipation pills by Upjohn in its original bottle with doses listed in grains.

Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal

Dr. Toni Brayer thumbs through a 1913 medical book with layered illustrations.

Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal

Dr. Toni Brayer poses with some of the items in her collection at her home in Mill Valley.

Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal

Dr. Toni Brayer poses with a large antique syringe at her home in Mill Valley.

Dr. Toni Brayer never sought out to be a collector of medical artifacts. But, what started as her scrolling through eBay in its early days led Brayer, a longtime internal medicine doctor, on an unexpected path to uncover relics of medical history.

Now, the Mill Valley resident’s collection features hundreds of pamphlets, bottles, books, tools and more — found online, in antique stores or given to her by patients — and gives a glimpse into the history of medicine and what we can glean from looking into the past.

Throughout her medical career, from the chief executive officer of Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation to the chief of staff for California Pacific Medical Center to volunteering after natural disasters, Brayer has always been inspired to help others.

Brayer volunteers at San Quentin State Prison, where she teaches GED prep to inmates weekly.

Q What made you go to medical school at age 30?

A I was very interested in science and always wanted to work with people. And I was always interested in medical history, I read about it and enjoyed seeing all the way back to ancient medical practices, back to Hippocrates.

Q What inspired your work at San Quentin?

A Most of these guys are going to be out in our communities again and it’s important to make sure that they have an education so that they can make it when they get released. It’s really fun and a privilege to teach them. I am interested in social justice and saw in a newsletter that they were looking for volunteers. I have done that a lot in my life, just responded to things that I see. I have done a lot of medical relief work over the years and volunteer mission work. Right after Katrina, I saw a little blurb in one of my newsletters about needing doctors in New Orleans, and a day later, I was on a plane.

Q What have your patients given you?

A One guy brought me an old porcelain bed pan, probably from the 1920s or ’30s. One man brought me these old pliers that may have been dental or from a doctor. And others brought bottles that had been dug up in San Francisco and other places.

Q What were some of the first items you got?

A Back around the turn of the century, we were an agricultural country; only a few people lived in large cities and people were extremely isolated. Pamphlets would be sent out … it gave you medical information and there were a lot of quackery ads in it. When you look through these, you get to see what women of that time were doing with their families, because the women were really the doctors of their families. They didn’t have hospitals and doctors and the kinds of things we have now. I have a couple of them where the women have actually written their home remedies for their family. It’s really a great glimpse into our predecessors.

Q How did you feel about seeing this as a woman in medicine?

A I have also been always interested in the history of women, and how that has changed over the decades, so it kind of tied together that interest. Of course being a woman in medicine, now fortunately it’s about 50/50 in the profession but in the late ’70s when I started medical school, that was not the case. My medical school classes were just 13% women. Seeing this change and seeing how women have evolved professionally, it all did tie together.

Q What’s one of your favorite finds?

A Little Chinese slippers. They are hand-embroidered and they were for the binding of the feet of women in China. That’s also another point of history that’s so fascinating, in particular what the upper-class Chinese women would have. They were crippled but they shuffled along in these beautiful shoes.

Q How has collecting impacted how you view your medical career?

A I have always respected the profession. Collecting has made me more aware of how science changes and that we are doing the best we have with the information we have now. It’s definitely made me appreciate being in this golden age of medicine. History does repeat itself so hopefully by looking back we can see where we have made mistakes and improve the future.

Sign up for email newsletters