Cardboard box with two handwritten inscriptions: 'WOLF TUBAL LAPAROSCOPE' and 'MR STEPTOE', believed to be the handwriting of IVF pioneer Patrick Christopher Steptoe (1913-1988), Cambridge, 1970-1975. Contains surgical instruments he used for performing tubal ligation procedures while Director of the Centre for Human Reproduction, Oldham.

This box contained instruments were used to by Patrick Steptoe (1913-1988) to carry out tubal ligation operations at Oldham General Hospital, Greater Manchester, in the early 1970s. This is a surgical procedure for sterilisation which involves clamping with clips the fallopian tubes, preventing eggs from reaching the uterus.

Steptoe pioneered the use of laparoscopy or keyhole surgery in Britain for the diagnosis and treatment of gynaecological conditions, and the technique played a critical role in the development of IVF, allowing eggs to be collected from the ovaries of volunteers without the need for invasive open surgery.

During the 1970s Steptoe and Robert Edwards (1925-2013) developed in vitro fertilisation (IVF), with Jean Purdy resulting in the birth of the world’s first ‘test-tube baby’, Louise Brown, in 1978. Edwards was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the development of IVF Steptoe was ineligible because the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.