NMHM

National Museum of Health and Medicine

Silver Spring, MD

The National Museum of Health and Medicine was established during the Civil War as the Army Medical Museum, a center for the collection of specimens for research in military medicine and surgery. In 1862, Surgeon General William Hammond directed medical officers in the field to collect "specimens of morbid anatomy together with projectiles and foreign bodies removed" and to forward them to the newly founded museum for study. The Museum's first curator, John Brinton, visited mid-Atlantic battlefields and solicited contributions from doctors throughout the Union Army. During and after the war, Museum staff took pictures of wounded soldiers showing effects of gunshot wounds as well as results of amputations and other surgical procedures. The information collected was compiled into six volumes of The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, published between 1870 and 1883.

http://www.medicalmuseum.mil

Upcoming Events at the National Museum of Health and Medicine

• Medical Museum Science Café: The Hard Science of the "X-Files" October 25, 2016
• Special Veterans Day Tour at the Medical Museum November 11, 2016
• Medical Museum Science Café: Scarred for Life: Using Art to Bring Humanity to Trauma Recovery November 15, 2016