A Repository for Bottled Monsters: laboratorians

Monday, April 20, 2009

I think I missed the ice cream

Received this email today, and I think I should have read it a little more closely:

We will be acknowledging the National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week (NMLPW) here at the Armed Force Institute of Pathology. NMLPW will be April 19-25, 2009.

What is NMLPW? NMLPW is an annual celebration of the medical laboratory professionals and pathologists who play a vital role in every aspect of health care. NMLPW is a chance for medical laboratory personnel to celebrate their professionalism and be recognized for their efforts. Often, they use this time to inform and educate medical colleagues and the public about the medical laboratory. Since laboratorians often work behind the scenes, few people know much about the critical testing they perform every day.

The theme will be "Laboratory Professionals Get Results." Due to OPTEMPO we will take the special time to formally thank everyone for their contribution with getting results at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Our special thank you will commence on Monday at 1100-1300HRS with an ice-cream and cake social held in the foyers of our Main and Rockville facilities.

See? I think the ice cream was today, and I missed it.

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

Monday, April 20, 2009

I think I missed the ice cream

Get new posts by email:

FeedBurner FeedCount

Google analytics