MANCHESTER, NH – John Clayton couldn’t get past the feeling that the impressive public health exhibition at the Millyard Museum needed a finishing touch.
As he took it all in – relics of the city’s past that defined a time when diseases like small pox and tuberculosis were the greatest threat to our public health.
The exhibition, as planned, ended with a display case of Narcan and a Wall Street Journal article about Manchester’s lead position on the national health scene for its response to the current heroin crisis, and the Safe Station program.
Although it is a sobering dose of realism, Clayton, who serves as executive director of the museum, felt the city’s contributions to public health tells a continuing story, one that includes the kind of hope that innovation brings to a community.
As luck would have it, New Hampshire inventor Dean Kamen attended the formal launch of the exhibition, and Clayton saw an opportunity. He asked Kamen if he’d be willing to loan one of his Slingshot water purification systems to the exhibition.
Kamen was happy to oblige.
And so on April 12 the red box-shaped contraption arrived, which has made international headlines for its potential to solve one of the world’s most imminent problems: How to provide life-sustaining water for the more than 750 million people who have no access to safe water for personal use.
“He came into our opening night looking for the mayor and I pounced into action,” says Clayton.
“From the earliest days of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, this community was remarkably progressive in its efforts to foster a culture of health,” says Clayton, “whether it is in the form of work-place safety, preventive medical care, clean drinking water, nutritional education or the establishment of parks and green spaces to encourage an active lifestyle.”
“And just as the community is rising today to meet the challenge of the opiate epidemic, in the past, health care professionals have grappled with smallpox, the Spanish flu, cholera and a host of other scourges,” Clayton said. “It’s fascinating to follow the timeline.”
While the exhibit celebrates the contributions of well-known individuals such as Dr. Selma Deitch and Dr. George S. Foster, it also recognizes those whose work behind the scenes helped to foster a culture of health in Manchester – and now, the exhibition includes Kamen’s contributions to finding a way to provide safe drinking water to those who face the daily prospect of going without the most essential element to human health, clean, safe water.
The exhibit continues at the Millyard Museum through June 24.
