Letter of the Day: May 26

May 26, 1917.

From: W.O. Owen, Colonel Medical Corps, U.S. Army,
Curator Army Medical Museum.

To: Professeur Jacob,
Directeur des Archives et Documents de Guerre,
Paris, France.

Subject: Specimens for the Army Medical Museum.

Your letter of the 9th of May is at hand. I am indeed obliged to you for
your willingness to assist me in making the collections here what they
ought to be.

I am particularly anxious to have specimens of the modern armor, such as
I am informed are in use by all of the armies engaged in this warfare,
and if you can place me in communication with anyone who has the
material for sale, or if you can inform me if there is any way by which
I may, properly, obtain this material form the military authorities of
France, by purchase or otherwise, I will be much obliged to you for the
courtesy.

It will give me pleasure to make a collection of any material that you
may want from this Country, or to let you have such material as we may
have in duplicate that may be desired by your Museum, if it may suit
your convenience to let me know your needs in these directions.

Rediscovered photographs

Today I've been stabilizing and doing some research in the Crynes Collection (OHA 143.02). This collection documents the life, and particularly the military career, of Major Sylvester F. Crynes MC, a pathologist with the 217th General Hospital during WWII.

Before donating his papers, Major Crynes' family digitized 400 35mm slide from his time in northern France during WWII. They are uniquely beautiful and I wish I could post them all, but I'll settle for a just a handful.

Letter of the Day: July 4

I've looked through a dozen years of correspondence and haven't found a letter yet. I had been hoping on finding one written to the Museum. In lieu of a letter, here's two photographs. Happy July 4th.



AMERICAN RED CROSS CANTEEN DECORATED FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION. GARE DE L'EST. PARIS, FRANCE. World War I. (Reeve 16183).



AMERICAN RED CROSS NURSES IN INDEPENDENCE DAY PARADE. PARIS, FRANCE. World War I (Reeve 16184).

Letter of the Day: July 3 (1 of 2) - French model maker

Extract
x x x x x
Dr. C. Lailles has the special charge of the Museum of the St. Louis Hospital – he has introduced me to Mr. Barella (sic, actually Baretta) – who makes the best anatomical models known. Most of his time is taken by the said Museum. Still he could make about 20 models a year for you. He has no price catalogue. He is to write out a list but when will that be done. Some of his models are in Philadelphia.

x x x x x

Letter by Mr. L. Bossange, Paris,
July 3, 1885


Friend Meyers,

In order that this matter may not be lost sight of-, and as the question may come up again, I send you the extract enclosed.

Yours etc.
F.W. Stone
July 16 / 85

Photo of the day, May 26

Medical Department, 05/26/1918. Brest, France. Nurses and doctors with their patients.

Photo of the day, April 24

Inspecting clothing for vermin. 04/24/1918. France. Inspecting clothing for vermin, Company E, 28th Infantry. Cooties. Reading shirts. 129-Y8-T.

Photo of the day, March 22

First aid being administered in a trench to a Marine prior to being sent to hospital in rear of trenches. 03/22/1918. Toul Sector, France. [First aid. War, Relief of sick and wounded. United States. Army. Signal Corps.] World War 1, 688-Y8-0. 12151

Letter of the Day: March 18

Boston

89 Charles St

March 18 ‘72

My Dear Dr.

I sent to you some months ago, by Express, a box containing a cast of the face of Charles XII, a cast of a large stone that was cut out from the peritoneal cavity & two or three small ones. As I have not heard of their arrival, I am afraid that some accident may have happened to them & will be ruined. Obliged to you if you will let me know if they have been received.

I send, enclosed, a photographer of a Hottentot Venus, that I think will be interesting in your ethnographical Section, which you probably have. It is possible that I have sent you one before, tho I think not.

A few days ago, rec’d for our College Museum the photograph of a little girl 5 yrs old, who has been menstruating regularly since she was 15 months old. Her breasts, which are shown, are larger than those of other women. I do not wish any [illegible] of persons or places to be referred to, but, if you would like to have a copy, I think that you might get one by addressing Dr. Wm. Dickinson, 520 Locust St, St. Louis (Missouri I presume).

Yours very truly

J.B.S. Jackson

George A. Otis, Surgeon

U.S.A.

YMCA in World War 1

I emailed these three photos to myself a couple of weeks ago to post here, and of course don't now remember what led me to them to start with. In any case, I think they're interesting and not images you see every day.


Reeve 16000: YMCA kitchen. 11/05/1918. Metz, Lorraine. YMCA kitchen where all Allied prisoners of war are fed after being released from German prison camp.

















Reeve 16079: YMCA, Chavonne, France. Bringing supplies to the YMCA. On the door is a large "Y" made from shells which landed near the door while under shell fire.
















Reeve 16065: YMCA. Field Hospital #3. Froissy, France. Female workers giving refreshments to French patients.

Browsing

Today we had a request for images of people who were blinded by poisonous gas. If the requester had asked for rabbits we would have been in business, but we had nada for those two conditions together. Some blindness, some poisonous gas, but the Venn diagram did not converge.

I did find, however, some interesting pictures about blindness, and here they are.

Reeve 870, A blinded French soldier, World War 1

















Reeve 871, A blinded French soldier and his bride, World War 1






AEF007 (American Expeditionary Forces)
Blind French soldiers, patients in the department organized by Miss Winnifred Hope for the re-education of the blind. Base Hospital number 115, Hotel Ruhl. Base Laboratory Hospital Center Vichy, France. 08/1918[?].















Reeve 14494: American Red Cross workrooms. Paris, Seine, France. Stitching eye bandages on the machine in the American Red Cross workrooms for surgical dressings, rue de la Faisanderie, Paris. These bandages are used largely for gas cases.

Human remains symposium in Paris text online

My colleagues at Biomedicine on Display caught this - International Symposium "FROM ANATOMIC COLLECTIONS TO OBJECTS OF WORSHIP". It dealt with human remains in museums, and the issues of repatriating them. The panels were as follows:

first round-table : repatriating human remains: why, for whom, under which conditions?
second round-table : Is there any place today for human remains inside museums?
third round table : the status of human remains from a legal, ethical and philosophical point of view
fourth round table : How to reach a mutual understanding? Institutional mediations and negotiations

Obviously the phrasing of the 2nd round-table just bugs me right away. Why shouldn't there be a place for human remains in a museum? I don't particularly care if mine end up there, and former museum pathologist Daniel Lamb insisted on it.

The whole text of the symposium is downloadable and I'm looking forward to reading it.