So far I’ve found Gendron Wheel Company and Everest & Jennings, but I can’t find a lot of info or pictures of either from that time period.
Example scenario: Soldier fighting in WW2 incurs a spinal cord injury and is rendered paraplegic. Once he recovered enough not to be bedridden, what kind of wheelchair would he have been supplied with? Would it have become his own wheelchair to use when he came home from the war, or would he have had to get a different one? Etc.
Haven’t really been able to find much info about this.
P.S. Ideally I’m looking for a folding wheelchair, info seems even more scarce on this. I read somewhere that Jennings made one in the 1930s before Everest & Jennings, but have found no info about it beyond that.
I can’t answer your question but one thing I do know is that people in wheelchairs were incredibly rare in the 40s. There were lots of people who walked with crutches and braces (polio was rampant) but you didn’t see people in wheelchairs until maybe the 60s. There was talk of “shut-ins” people who didn’t leave their homes (or–more likely–apartments). There were no handicapped parking places, no sidewalk cuts, none of the accommodations that we see today.
When I was in a hospital in 1950 (appendectomy) there were large clunky wooden wheelchairs. If there were other kinds, I was unaware of them. By 1964, when I spent four years at the University of Illinois which had a big student rehab center, there were lots of students using wheelchairs, there were jitneys with chair lifts, nearly all the university buildings were accessible. My office was in one building that wasn’t, but that was a real exception. But had I had a handicapped student who wanted to meet me, there were places I could have arranged to meet them.
I don’t know about that time/period, but in Europe they had ( wheels, generally pushed ) bathchairs, mainly for the slightly better off upwards, from the 18th century on. I’m sure by the 1940s somewhat better things would be available. *
The lightweight chair was made of wicker, or perhaps Indian reed. Its tricycle structure, with large rear wheels, was typical of older wheelchairs available at the time. Only in 1932 was the first folding tubular steel chair invented.
Although, saying that, in old photos I’ve seen awful iron callipers (sort of leg braces ) up to the 1960s that could have been made in the 1460s.
I am pretty sure I saw patients being pushed in wheelchairs in Dr Kildare [the movie series that is from] and also I am pretty certain I saw him being pushed by orderlies occasionally. Wonder if the franchise is on netflix streaming. Not streaming, but they have 2 of the franchise in disc.
Thanks guys. Does anyone know of specific brands? Like, for instance, the one Lionel Barrymore’s using in that picture? Or the ones seen in aceplace57’s last three pics?
