Wednesday, November 20, 2013

NMHM's Resolved exhibit gets second life

Katy woman remembers her dad who never came home from Vietnam Houston Chronicle

Who: The Health Museum, in cooperation with the Texas Capital Vietnam Veterans Monument and the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring ...

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

NMHM exhibit reviewed in Journal of American History

Journal of American History

Dec 2013

National Museum of Health and Medicine

National Museum of Health and Medicine, U.S. Army Fort Detrick Forest Glen Annex, Silver Spring, Md. http://www.medicalmuseum.mil/.

Permanent exhibition, opened May 2012. 5,000 sq. ft. Adrienne Noe, museum director; Gallagher & Associates, exhibit planning and design; KlingStubbins in coordination with the Baltimore district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, architecture and engineering.

by Ashley Bowen-Murphy

Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Nov 19: NLM History of Medicine Lecture features Smithsonian

You are cordially invited to the next NLM History of Medicine lecture, to
be held on Tuesday, November 19, from 2pm to 3pm in the Lister Hill
Auditorium, Building 38A, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.
Diane Wendt, Associate Curator, National Museum of American History, will
speak on "Vessels, Tubes and Tanks: Historic Biotechnologies at the
Smithsonian," which marks the opening of the new NLM exhibition "From DNA
to Beer: Harnessing Nature in Medicine and Industry." The exhibition will
be on display in the History of Medicine Division from November 2013 to
May 2014 and have an online presence to reach a wide public audience.

Drawing from the collections of the National Library of Medicine and the
National Museum of American History, From DNA to Beer will help to promote
public understanding of the dynamic relationship between microbes,
technology, and science and medicine.

All are welcome.

Sign language interpretation is provided. Individuals with disabilities
who need reasonable accommodation to participate may contact Stephen
Greenberg at 301-435-4995, e-mail
greenbes@mail.nih.gov<mailto:greenbes@mail.nih.gov>, or the Federal Relay
(1-800-877-8339).

Due to current security measures at NIH, off-campus visitors are advised
to consult the NLM Visitors and Security website:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/visitor.html

Sponsored by:
NLM's History of Medicine Division
Jeffrey S. Reznick, PhD, Chief

Event contact:
Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD
Coordinator of Public Services
History of Medicine Division
National Library of Medicine, NIH
301-435-4995
greenbes@mail.nih.gov<mailto:greenbes@mail.nih.gov>

Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Nazi Anatomists article on Slate

The Nazi Anatomists

How the corpses of Hitler's victims are still haunting modern science—and American abortion politics.

By Emily Bazelon

November 6 2013

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2013/11/nazi_anatomy_history_the_origins_of_conservatives_anti_abortion_claims_that.html

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

Pages