A Repository for Bottled Monsters: Sadly, some losses

Friday, December 5, 2008

Sadly, some losses

Today the AFIP director reported, "Dr. Ahmed Hidayat, Chief Ophthalmic Pathology, AFIP, passed away last evening from a long-term illness. Dr. Hidayat was a long-time member of the Institute Staff in Ophthalmic Pathology."

And STIL Casing Solutions (whom we bought 16mm film cans from for our eventual film project) sent an email telling me that André Pion, the person who I usually dealt with and just talked to a couple of weeks ago about new DVD cases, passed away too.

We regret to announce the death of our colleague and friend André Pion, who passed away last Tuesday evening from septicaemia (blood poisoning). Death’s irrevocable nature makes it very difficult to accept, but at the same time reminds us of how priceless life is.

We will remember him for his unquestioned integrity, intellectual honesty and his devotion to his work, and also for the gifts of his friendship and humour. He cared deeply for each person he talked with, he loved his work and felt privileged to be able to do something he loved every day.

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Who are we?

Mike Rhode was the chief archivist of the Museum from 1989-2011, and is the founder of this blog. I maintain an interest in the course of the museum, and will be posting relevant information.

The Army Medical Museum was founded in 1862 during the American Civil War. After World War II, a parent-child relationship was inverted and the Museum became part of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Since then, the Museum has moved around Washington, stopping for years in Ford's Theatre, and on the National Mall where the building it shared with the National Library of Medicine once stood, until it was demolished in 1968 for the Hirshhorn Museum. For 35 years it was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and now is in Silver Spring, MD.

So what about that blog name?

It's historical. I found it in a quote from one of the former curators. World War II confirmed the Army Medical Museum's primary role in pathology consultation. James Ash, the curator during the war and a pathologist, noted, "Shortly after the last war, more concerted efforts were instituted to concentrate in the Army Medical Museum the significant pathologic material occurring in Army installations." He closed with the complaint, "We still suffer under the connotation museum, an institution still thought of by many as a repository for bottled monsters and medical curiosities. To be sure, we have such specimens. As is required by law, we maintain an exhibit open to the public, but in war time, at least, the museum per se is the least of our functions, and we like to be thought of as the Army Institute of Pathology, a designation recently authorized by the Surgeon General."

After the war, it evolved into the tri-service Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

A Repository for Bottled Monsters

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Friday, December 5, 2008

Sadly, some losses

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