An unofficial blog about the National Museum of Health and Medicine (nee the Army Medical Museum) in Silver Spring, MD. Visit for news about the museum, new projects, musing on the history of medicine and neat pictures.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Letter of the Day: May 5 - CSI Medical Museum, part 3
Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1457
Headquarters of the Metropolitan Police,
District of Columbia,
Washington, May 5th 1896
Dr. Walter Reed,
Surgeon, U.S.A.,
Curator U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library,
Washington, D.C.
Dear Sir:-
I beg to make my grateful acknowledgements for your prompt compliance with my request of May 3rd, and to assure you that you will find me willing and ready to serve you whenever it may be in my power to do so.
Very respectfully & obediently yours,
W.G. Moore
Major & Sup’t. Met. Police
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Planner chosen for Walter Reed
The 3-minute interview: James Wood
By: William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer
May 4, 2010
Wood, a principal at architectural firm Perkins & Will, discusses the firm's selection as master planner for the 62-acre Walter Reed site. The Army hospital is set to relocate in 2011.
The Fenty administration cited your experience with the Presidio of San Francisco, the site of another Army hospital, as a reason behind your selection. How are the projects similar?
There were two general hospitals in the Army at the turn of the 1900s: Walter Reed and Presidio. ... They both served the same purpose for the Army when they were created. ... Because of that, they have a similar infrastructure in terms of [being] hospitals both created around the same time, both projects centered around a historic hospital complex. Presidio is much larger: 1,400 acres versus 62 acres that we are dealing with.
What are the constraints on how this site can be redeveloped?
There are two primary constraints: One, the historic nature of certain structures on there, and they've got adaptive reuse of those structures. And two, we're helping the city prepare their request for the transfer of that land. And part of that requires [U.S. Housing and Urban Development] looking at this in terms of opportunities for homeless assistance programs.
Do you have a sense of what surrounding neighborhoods want?
We don't yet. We have four community engagement exercises that we're going to go through in this process, actually sit down with the community and understand what the needs of the community are, how they view the existing base and how they view the opportunities on the base to re-engage the community.
Are there early themes emerging for what this site should look like?
One of our project views is the site shouldn't look like anything -- you want to take this site and incorporate it into the urban fabric of the neighborhood. Right now, it's a secure base, it stands out, it's a bump in the middle of the neighborhood.
- William C. Flook
Friday, April 30, 2010
Letter of the day, April 30
[Numbered Correspondence 5185]
Subject: Station & Duty.
War Department,
Surgeon General's Office,
U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library,
Corner 7th and B Streets SW.,
Washington April 30, 1901.
TO THE ADJUTANT GENERAL,
U.S. Army.
General:
I have the honor to report that during the month of April 1901, I have been on duty in the Surgeon General's Office as Curator of the Army Medical Museum in accordance with Par. 2 S.O. No.153, Hdqrs. of the Army, A.G.O., Washington, July 7, 1893.
Very respectfully,
Walter Reed,
Major & Surgeon, U.S. Army,
Curator Army Med. Museum.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Letter of the day, March 23
Microscopes:
March 23, [189]5
To the
Surgeon General, U.S. Army,
Washington, D.C.
General:
In reply to your letter of March 22, 1895, I beg to report that the following microscopes, all in good condition as to serviceability, are on hand at the Museum, viz.:
Large microscope, continental stand, mechanical stage, Zeiss (One of these belongs to the microphotographic outfit.) No. 4
Large microscope with fixed stage (Stand 1B, Leitz,) [No.] 1
Medium sized microscope, Stand II, Leitz, [No.] 1
Microscope B B, Continental stand, Bausch & Lomb, [No.] 6
The foregoing instruments are furnished with suitable oculars and objectives for pathological and bacteriological work, and were taken up upon my property return for the year ending December 31, 1894.
Very respectfully,
[signed] Walter Reed,
Surgeon, U.S. Army,
Curator.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Letter of the Day: February 11 makeup
Another letter showing the Museum’s move towards being a Pathology Institute.
Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1252
United States Indian Service,
Pine Ridge Agency, S.D. [South Dakota]
2/11/96 [1896]
To the Surgeon General, U.S.A.
Washington, D.C.
Dear Sir:
I send you by this mail a little box containing a pill box, in which is a tiny tumor which I removed from an Irish lady’s gum, at the margin and between the upper central incisors. The tumor has been removed, 3 times, but recurs. By soaking the specimen, its nature can be ascertained under the microscope ,and if not too much trouble may I ask you what is its pathology?
Very Truly & Sincerely,
Z.T. Daniel
Handwritten Note: Tumor received Feb. 15, 1896
The letter sent back reads:
March 5, 1896
Dr. Z.T. Daniel,
U.S. Indian Service,
Pine Ridge Agency,
So. Dakota
Dear Doctor:
I received, on February 15, 1896, through the Surgeon General, a pill box in which was contained a tiny fragment of a tumor, described as having been removed by you from an Irish lady’s gum. The appearance of the fragment of material contained in the box did not lead one to anticipate that a microscopical examination would give any result, inasmuch as you omitted to place it in any hardening fluid. No amount of soaking the specimen, as suggested by you, would be of any use, since, upon section, we found that there had been a complete destruction of all nuclei and cells contained in the tumor. For this reason it is impossible for us to ascertain anything concerning the microscopical character of this growth. If, however, you will remove another fragment of the tumor, and place it at once in 95% alcohol, and forward it to me, I will take pleasure in informing you as to the true character of the growth.
Very respectfully,
Walter Reed
Surgeon, U.S. Army
Curator
The issue of what an Indian Service doctor was doing treating an Irish lady remains unsolved as well.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
More good stuff from the Registry
James Carroll was a Major in the Army who worked with Walter Reed on his yellow fever research. He volunteered to be bitten by a mosquito that had previously bitten three others who had yellow fever. He contracted the disease and several years later died of cardiac disease that was attributed to his bout of yellow fever.
Here's a letter from the President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, petitioning a Congressman to grant a special pension to Carroll's widow.
Page 1
Page 2
And here is the Congressman's reply.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought being a Major in the Army meant you were in military service to your country.