CHARLES C. REINHARDT WAS A SURGICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER IN BALTIMORE
This dissection set is made of wood covered with embossed paper. It includes a total of 9 instruments, six of which have ivory handles. A leather divider holds dissection scissors and a blow pipe. The maker’s label on the inside allows fairly precise dating to c. 1845.
Reinhardt manufactured surgical and dental instruments in Baltimore. An internet search turns up only one other item manufactured by Reinhardt, a set nearly identical to that above, in the National Museum of American History. The design of the label is different, but the name and address are the same. It can be viewed here:
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_730364
CHARLES CHRISTIAN REINHARDT
1803 – 1864
(photo from an Ancestry.com family tree)
Charles Christian Reinhardt was born in 1803, probably in Erfurt, Germany (within the state of Thuringia in central Germany). He apprenticed under his father, Johann Christian Reinhardt, who was a cutler and instrument maker. The elder Reinhardt emigrated to America and was living in Baltimore in 1815, where his daughter Elizabeth was born.
Several internet sources, using the information found in Baltimore directories state that Charles C. Reinhardt started his business in 1837, at 24 Lombard St. in Baltimore. However, a business token stamped “C.C. Reinhardt” and “BALTo Md” was sold at auction – it was a large cent with the date 1826. This would seem to indicate that he may have started his business over ten years earlier than is commonly believed. He would have been 23 years old at the time, and so it is certainly a possibility.
The webpage “Medicine in Maryland” has an entry written by Nancy Sheads in 2018, which lists the years (with corresponding addresses) of the business:
Whether it was a typographical error or an omission, this does not reflect information found in an advertisement in the “Baltimore Wholesale and Business Directory and Business Circular for the Year 1845”. In that year, the business moved from No. 8 to No. 9 Light Street – the exact address on the label of the set shown above. Note the mention of “Dissecting Instruments, set of, $4 to $6.”
The 1845 address of the business, now known as “C.C. Reinhardt & Co.”, is corroborated by Harold L. Peterson in his highly-regarded reference work, “The American Sword, 1775 – 1945”. He also supplies the following information:
“In 1849 Reinhardt first listed his concern as cutlers as well as surgical and dental instrument makers, but he may well have made knives before that time. In 1856/57 the firm moved to No. 11 Light Street and then a year later to 9 North Gay Street. In 1865 the firm was reorganized as Reinhardt and Brother (William H. Reinhardt and J. Reinhardt) and Charles C. left the company. The cutlery entry was also dropped in that year. Finally, in 1868, Charles, Jr. succeeded to the firm but remained only one year.”
The March 19, 1864 edition of “The Baltimore Sun” mentions the estate of “Charles C. Reinhardt, late of said city, deceased”. His burial place is unknown at this time.