NMHM Historical Collections Subject Authority (original) (raw)
Related papers
Guide to Historical Collections, National Museum of Health and Medicine 2016
The Historical Collections division documents the material culture of medicine. Based on the Museum's history as a military institution, many of the artifacts in the collection were used or purchased by the U.S. Army and reflect the concerns of military medicine. The collection includes medical instruments used in every major conflict that the U.S. armed forces were involved in from the American Revolution to the Global War on Terrorism.
The United States Army Medical Museum, founded in 1862, was recognized internationally as the premier medical museum. In 1914, the British Medical History Committee formed to preserve knowledge generated by World War I deemed this American institution a model to be emulated. Even so, when America entered World War I, a plan was implemented to reinvigorate the fifty-year-old Museum. It led to the Museum's concentration on pathology even as educational departments for motion pictures and photography were being created. The anti-venereal disease film 'Fit to Fight' was especially controversial particularly when shown to non-military audiences. The Museum's location near the Smithsonian Institution in downtown Washington, DC now seemed less desirable and there was a push for a new building on the suburban campus of Walter Reed General Hospital to consolidate medical resources. Thousands of new specimens arrived, a new numbering system for specimens was adopted and new exhibits of wartime concerns such as trench foot were developed. The Museum contributed to the diagnosis of diseases during the war, and publication of The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War afterwards. World War I set the Museum firmly on the road to becoming a pathological institute. Meanwhile, as a 'modern' medical research institution, little value was seen in some of the earlier collections, and staff began discarding material -- especially from the Civil War. Changes in medicine made the Museum's traditional wide-ranging roles and relevancy including memorialisation diminish, as its importance in pathology grew stronger. Yet showing the value of traditional museum collections, lung specimens collected during the war recently were used for DNA typing of the 'Spanish' influenza. With unlimited access to Museum records and pertinent military documents, the authors analyze these developments, especially in light of the evolving intersection of medicine, museology and popular culture.
Medical Museums: Past, Present, Future, 2013
Front cover A large cyst from the abdominal cavity of a patient, prepared in the 18th century by John Hunter, who cut openings for viewing the internal structure. Hunterian Museum at the royal college of surgeons. Back cover Top view of five fluid-preserved specimens in jars. Hunterian Museum at the royal college of surgeons. inside cover Prosthetic glass eyes, hand-made by glass blower Mollie Surman in the mid-20th century. Hunterian Museum at the royal college of surgeons. Medical Museums: Past, Present, Future
Medical Museums Past, Present and Future
The Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 2011
It is tempting, especially for those working in them, to think that the turbulence experienced by medical museums in the past two decades has been unprecedented. However, these fascinating collections have always been subject to change: in ownership, in purpose, in audience. Museums are not static mausolea but are dynamic, vibrant entities that grow, shrink and adapt to shifting circumstances. As our own Hunterian Museum approaches the bicentenary of its opening here in Lincoln's Inn Fields, it seems a good time to reflect on the key historical shifts, to assess where medical museums are now and to suggest where they might go next.
Militares Medici in Nummis Repraesentati: The Heritage of Military Medicine in Coins and Medals
Military Medicine, 2002
Coins and commemorative medals constitute one special repository of the history of military medicine. The numismatic record has proven to be the most enduring, albeit one of the most selective, records of the progress of history. Matters of health, and especially of military medicine, have been central to the endeavors and indeed the survival of many cultures and societies. Many such themes in the national and international history of military medicine are preserved in the medallic record. Coins and medallions thus constitute one record of the chronology of this profession, one parallel to that of the more traditional history to be found in oral and written records. This account presents a four-part classification of medical coins and medals of military interest. These examples include (1) medals that portray military surgeons and physicians; (2)medals that commemorate special events of military medicine; (3) coins that portray the themes of the discipline of military medicine and health; and (4) a miscellaneous group that includes such examples as disease "touch pieces" and the militarily worn medals of such bodies as the International Red Cross and the Order of 81. John, the latter of which are awarded inter alia for contributions to prehospital care in the field. A representative photo archive of such exemplars is included in this account. The antiquary loves olde things (as Dutchemen do cheese) the better Jor being moldy and worme-eaten.. .. His estate consists much in shekals, and Roman Coynes, and he has more pictures oj Caesar than James or Elizabeth.