Record of Dental Laboratory Service

How cool is this? Were there any filled out with patients names and cavity locations? That'd be a little embarassing.

hmmm gold teeth.... Be cool to have teeth like Jaws form the classic James Bond flicks.

POWDERS? OR JUST SOME GOOD OLD DENTAL GRADE COCAINE?

I googled this name and found a 'Remembering those lost at sea' for a Dr. Walter F. Barry October 29, 1954 in a 16 foot Skiff
http://starnewsgroup.c....06/pdf/07.06.06.pdf
Wonder if it was the same person.

Oh cool, I tried googling his name, though it was a lackluster attempt and I didn't find anything. Thanks Just another building!

After some more detective work, I have found a few more places mentioning, presumably, our good doctor.
Most interesting is a paper that he co-authored in 1933, Nitrous Oxid for Major Oral Surgery: http://www.anesthesia-...8a-beb2-249df1e4311b
It's a shame that it takes $15 or a subscription to 'Anesthesia and Analgesia' to read it, and perhaps find out more about him.

There is a small blurp about him staying at the Ocean Hotel in 1909 in the New York Times: http://query.nytimes.c...56C2A9619C946897D6CF

It also seems that he invented, or otherwise played a significant role in devicing, a type of dental tool called a Walter F. Barry root elevator.

Given his death in 1951, though not natural, and him being a doctor in 1909, I would guess that he would have been born around the 1880s give or take a decade or two.


Wow, at this point I start to question why I went out of my way to find out about this man. Guess I just found it interesting, and if any one of you guys do to, then all the better.

I know all about him. That was my grandfather, Walter F. Barry Sr, DDS who was a well established oral surgeon in Orange New Jersey. Walter was married to Anna Walsh (d. circa 1978) and they produced Walter Jr DDS (d. 1951), Frank (my father, d. 1965), Nancy (married to John Rank, DDS of Trenton, d circa 1970), and James (d. 1975). Walter Sr. was also a professor at the Penn School of Dentistry and invented a number of new (at the time) instruments such as elevators and root scalers. I believe some can still be obtained from SS White. Walter was also the occasional dentist for the Roosevelts of Hyde Park., NY.

Walter Sr. was the son of Michael Barry (d. 1922), an Irish immigrant who landed at Ellis Island in 1859 and joined the Union Navy in 1864. (I have his Civil War Medal). I also have a copy of a letter that Michael wrote to Walter Sr. in 1906, when Walter was admitted to the Penn School of Dentistry. Walter Barry Jr., also a Penn graduate and a resident of Orange, NJ, was killed by a lightning strike in Augiust 1951 during a fishing trip on Barnegat Bay, NJ, a few months after I ws born. I found this thread because I googled my grandfather's name to try to find out where he is buried (presumably somewhere in or near Orange, NJ). If anyone wants further information, my e-mail address is sjbarry@ucdavis.edu

I meant to add that Walter Sr. was born in 1878 and died in 1942

I also grant that it seems odd that a card bearing a New Jersey dentist's name as "director" was found in a hospital quite far from New Jersey, but I notice that theccard does not include the name of that hospital so it seems that there could be a number of explanations. But to my knowledge (and to that of my cousin who worked very hard to "map" the Barry family tree) the only dentist in the US in that time period with that name was my grandfather.

Very cool Sean! Thanks for that update. It always makes the photo's on this site that much more interesting when they can be tied to a real person either in name or experience. Much appreciated..

TJ

well this answers my question lol :) wonderful find!

To have gold teeth would make you the hippest patient in all the asylum XD

Thank you Sean Barry! This really IS a wonderful site! Bless you all, and gratitude to Mr.M. for this astonishing creation. True Fun Every Day

Awesome possum backstory, Sean! Thank you so much for sharing! Reading all the history in the comments is half the fun on Opacity!