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.
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
AFIP and NMHM mentioned in memo as having aliens from Roswell
proof at Pentagon briefing ...
The Sun
... reveals alien forensic tissue and organs were being stored at
Walter Reed-Armed Forces Institute for Pathology Medical Museum in
Washington DC ...
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9382232/leaked-memo-suggests-fake-roswell-alien-autopsy-video-real-cia-scientist-pentagon-briefing/
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Indiana Medical History Museum profiled
Sunday, March 24, 2019
NMHM and Dittrick curators on medical equipment
Friday, February 22, 2019
McGill honors Maude Abbott with a plaque
After honouring 99 men, McGill medical building recognizes pioneer Maude Abbott
Refused entry to McGill medical school because she was a woman, Abbott went on to work for the university
NMHM sued for access to collection
Innocence Project sues museum for access to archives on 'tragically flawed' bite-mark evidence
ABA Journal February 21, 2019,
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/innocence-project-files-first-amendment-suit-over-denied-access-to-museums-bite-mark-archivesThe Innocence Project has sued the federal government's National Museum of Health and Medicine for denying it access to archival information on the history of bite-mark analysis.....
Friday, February 8, 2019
The Washington Post's Express paper reviews the National Museum of Health and Medicine
The National Museum of Health and Medicine is a fascinating nightmare
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
McGill's Medical Museum opens to public
McGill's Maude Abbott Medical Museum opens its collection to the public The "Holmes heart" has a special place among the 2,000 specimens in the collection of McGill's Maude Abbott Medical Museum, which opened its ... |
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Excellent article on WW1 Chemical Corps experiments in DC
The Chemists' War
One hundred years after the end of World War I, the Army Corps of Engineers is still cleaning up the relics of experiments that helped develop chemical weapons to counter the Germans' gas attacks.
By Theo Emery
Nov. 10, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/science/chemical-weapons-world-war-1-armistice.html
Friday, November 2, 2018
Civil War specimens scanned from NMHM
Lab 3-D scans human skeletal remains dating back to the American Civil War
November 1, 2018 by Brian Mcneill, Virginia Commonwealth University
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-11-lab-d-scans-human-skeletal.html#jCpFriday, October 12, 2018
Wayne Meyers, leprosy specialist at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, has passed away
Thursday, October 11, 2018
McGill Medical Museum featured in local paper
Restored museum unlocks McGill's medical history The Maude Abbott Medical Museum provides visitors with insight into the rich history of medical studies at McGill as well as the rare opportunity to see ... |
Monday, October 1, 2018
Brain collection at India’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences
Visitors Can Touch Human Brains at This Indian Neuroscience Institute
It's like a petting zoo for organs.
Friday, September 21, 2018
More on the McGill Medical Museum and Gunter von Hagens
Experience: I will be plastinated when I die
The challenges I face are immense. Suffering from Parkinson's disease is like practising dying
Gunther von Hagens
Hearts, brains and bones: Visitors to new museum will 'come a little closer to death'
'We have virtually everything you can think of,' says pathologist Rick Fraser.
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
McGill University reopens medical museum
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Facial reconstruction photos on NLM's blog
The National Museum of Health and Medicine also has thousands of these types of pictures.
Hidden Faces of WW1: Maxillofacial Portraits Preserved
https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2018/08/02/hidden-faces-of-ww1-maxillofacial-portraits-preserved/
Circulating Now welcomes guest blogger Katherine Akey. Ms. Akey is Adjunct Professor of Photography in the Corcoran School of the Arts at the George Washington University and Fellow in the Living Legacy of World War One project at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. She is also the line producer for the United States World War One Centennial Commission weekly WW1 Centennial News Podcast. Today she employs her considerable expertise to give us insight into a private and profound photographic collection of an American surgeon in the Great War, now held in the public trust at the National Library of Medicine.
Monday, July 23, 2018
July 23: Medical Museum Science Cafe: Confronting "Shell Shock": The American Experience during World War I
You are cordially invited to attend the following lecture to be held at the
National Museum of Health and Medicine, 2500 Linden Lane, Silver Spring, MD
20910, on Tuesday, July 24, 2018, from 6-7 p.m.
Confronting "Shell Shock": The American Experience during World War I
During World War I, war-related psychological trauma was considered a new
manifestation of psychiatric breakdown. American military medicine was
challenged by establishing an entirely new medical specialty while treating
the stricken service member and assuring an anxious public back home. Explore
American psychiatrists' understanding of "shell shock" and what lessons they
did – or did not – learn from their experience. Presenter: Rachel Levandoski
is an historian in the Office of the Secretary of Defense Historical Office
and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
FREE! Open to the public. No RSVP required.
Andrea Schierkolk
NMHM Public Programs
andrea.k.schierkolk.civ@mail.
301-319-3303
Friday, June 1, 2018
NMHM archives cited in Washington City Paper article
LGBTQ People Suffered Traumatic Treatments at St. Elizabeths Hospital for the Mentally Ill[in print as Asylum Seekers].
"This is coercive federal psychiatry. ...This whole idea of LGBT Americans being broken and in need of a cure—religious or psychiatric—is still a pernicious, damaging lie."
https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/21007233/independent-scholars-uncover-the-traumatic-treatments-lgbtq-people-suffered-at-st-elizabeths
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
NY Times photo essay on medical tools
Photos of Gynecological Tools From Centuries Past
By Remy Tumin
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Mutter Museum featured in Washington Post
In Philadelphia, a medical museum puts the human body on display
Washington Post February 8 2018
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/in-philadelphia-a-medical-museum-puts-the-human-body-on-display/2018/02/07/5bfb0eaa-d45a-11e7-a986-d0a9770d9a3e_story.html
Sunday, November 5, 2017
John Kelly of the Washington Post on AMM building
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Cushing's brain collection at Yale
In a basement on Yale's campus, a 'shop of horrors' concealed medical history
Monday, October 2, 2017
Australia want's skull in Mutter Museum repatriated
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
NMHM gets some executive branch interest
Readout of Second Lady Karen Pence's visit to the National Museum of Health and Medicine
Friday, September 8, 2017
Minor Civil War medical museums article in the Washington Post
Monday, July 17, 2017
Editorial on NMHM repatriation
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
July 13: New National Library of Medicine history book premiere
You are cordially invited to a public symposium to mark the recent publication of Images of America: US National Library of Medicine, and the simultaneous availability via NLM Digital Collections of the complete book at:
https://collections.nlm.nih.
and original versions of the 170+ images which appear in the book in black and white:
Learn more about this new, publicly-available publication here:
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/
The symposium will be a part of the NLM History of Medicine Lecture Series and will take place this Thursday, July 13, 2016, from 2:30pm to 4pm in Lipsett Amphitheater on the first floor of the NIH Clinical Center, Building 10, on the NIH Campus in Bethesda, MD. PLEASE NOTE THE SPECIAL TIME AND VENUE.
If you cannot join us onsite, you can watch the proceedings via NIH Videocasting: https://videocast.nih.gov/. You can also participate in the proceedings via Twitter by following #NLMHistTalk.
Sign language interpretation is provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate may contact Stephen J. Greenberg at 301-827-4577, or by email at stephen.greenberg@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/Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Gallaudet University's aviation medicine exhibit
Deaf Difference + Space Survival Exhibit is an excellent exhibit on the use of deaf men with no sense of balance to experiment on how they and the Mercury 7 astronauts would deal with weightlessness and centrifugal forces. If you're around Washington, DC, it's well worth seeing. An account of the experiments is here - https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/how-being-deaf-made-difference-space-research
My photographs of a tour with historian Jean Bergey and original volunteer Harry Larson (and Navy Medicine historian Andre Sobocinski) can be seen here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/42072348@N00/albums/72157684118530696
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Budapest's ‘Hospital in the Rock’ medical museum
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Pharmacy museums featured on Atlas Obscura
What Ho, Apothecary! 18 Intriguing Pharmacy Museums
Take a calmative and visit one of these preserved drug preparers.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/pharmacy-museums-world
Sunday, April 16, 2017
WWI material at Rose Melnick Medical Museum
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
April 6: Stephen Greenberg on WWI medical photography
World War I Centenary Forum: The Frances Dupuy Fletcher Photo Album
by Circulating Now on April 5, 2017
Stephen J. Greenberg, will speak at 2 PM ET on April 6 in the NLM Lister Hill Auditorium on "The Frances Dupuy Fletcher Photo Album" as part of the Library's World War I Centenary Forum. Circulating Now interviewed him about his work.
The 2017 Spurgeon Neel Award
Named in honor of Major General (Retired) Spurgeon H. Neel, first Commanding General of Health Services Command (now U.S. Army Medical Command), the award competition is open to all federal employees, military and civilian, as well as non-governmental civilian authors who submit manuscripts for publishing consideration.
The AMEDD Museum Foundation will present a special medallion award and a $1000 monetary prize to the winner, who will be notified in advance, at a Foundation-sponsored event early in 2018.
All manuscripts must be submitted to the AMEDD Museum Foundation, amedd.foundation@att.net, by 30 September 2017. At the time of submission, a manuscript must be original work and not pending publication in any other periodical. It must conform to the Writing and Submission Guidance of the AMEDD Journal, and must relate to the history, legacy and/or traditions of the Army Medical Department. Manuscripts will be reviewed and evaluated by a six-member committee appointed by the President of the AMEDD Museum Foundation. The winning manuscript will be selected no later than December 2017.
Additional detail concerning the Spurgeon Neel Annual Award may be obtained by contacting Mrs. Sue McMasters at the AMEDD Museum Foundation, 210-226-0265.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
April 6: Sarah Eilers speaks on WWI facial reconstruction
World War I Centenary Forum: Masking Devastation
by Circulating NowSarah Eilers, will speak at 2 PM ET on April 6 in the NLM Lister Hill Auditorium on "Masking Devastation: Inside Anna Ladd's Paris Studio" as part of the Library's World War I Centenary Forum. Circulating Now interviewed her about her work.
Circulating Now: Please tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? What do you do? What is your typical workday like?
The original film she discusses is at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, since the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology no longer exists. See the rest of the interview at https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2017/04/04/world-war-i-centenary-forum-masking-devastation/
Monday, March 27, 2017
Mobile Medical Museum featured on tv
Mobile Medical Museum full of interesting artifacts
Mar 24, 2017By Lee Peck, FOX10 News Reporter
http://www.fox10tv.com/story/34994918/mobile-medical-museum-full-of-interesting-artifacts
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Major exhibit on St. Elizabeths mental hospital opens in DC
When we thought mental illness could be cured with architecture
Express March 232017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2017/03/23/when-we-thought-mental-illness-could-be-cured-with-architecture/
Thursday, March 16, 2017
New York Academy of Medicine archivist featured online
Rebecca Pou | Movers & Shakers 2017 – Digital Developers
St. Elizabeths hospital exhibit at National Building Museum
MARCH 25, 2017–JANUARY 15, 2018
http://nbm.org/exhibition/architecture-asylum-st-elizabeths-1852-2017/
I'm sure this will be a good exhibit and I plan to go see it. The hospital treated mentally-ill soldiers for much of the nineteenth century and there's a Civil War graveyard on the site.
St. Elizabeths had a historic collection, or museum, that was broken up in the 1990s with material going to the National Archives, the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Howard University, and at least two other places.
Here's the Medical Museum's description of its holdings:
SAINT ELIZABETH'S HOSPITAL COLLECTION, 1861-1990
No finding aid,21 boxes, unarranged, inactive, unrestricted.
Material transferred when Saint Elizabeth's closed its museum due to being transferred from the federal government to the District of Columbia. Includes books, photographs,paintings, patient art, certificates, and pamphlets. Most photographs and paintings are portraits of staff. Objects also in Historical Collections.
.
Additional material transferred to the National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of American History, Howard University,Department of the Interior Museum, Department of Health and Human Services' SAMSUS, Smithsonian Institution Castle, National Archives, and the Octagon House.
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
March 21: Shelley McKellar speaks on artificial hearts at NLM
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Search for new Director - Florence Nightingale Museum in London
https://jobs.theguardian.com/
The Florence Nightingale Museum
Museum: 020 7188 4400
Direct line: 020 7188 2830
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
FOR MORE DETAILS:
www.florence-nightingale.co.uk
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Edward Jenner Museum in financial trouble
Jan 31, 2017
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Medical illustration blog at National Museum of Civil War Medicine
Military Medical Illustration: A Civil War Invention?
by JTH Connor and Michael Rhode
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Ukranian pharmacy museum profiled
Under the Black Eagle Pharmacy Museum
Ukraine's oldest operating pharmacy now offers guests a fascinating walk through apothecary history.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/
Monday, January 23, 2017
Michael Sappol on medical photography
Anatomy's Photography: Objectivity, showmanship and the reinvention of the anatomical image 1860-1950
https://remedianetwork.net/2017/01/23/anatomys-photography-objectivity-showmanship-and-the-reinvention-of-the-anatomical-image-1860-1950/
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Alexandria's real Civil War hospital featured on NLM blog
Mercy Street's Mansion House Hospital
By Stephen J. Greenberg
January 19, 2017
https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2017/01/19/mercy-streets-mansion-house-hospital/#like-10817
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Dittrick Museum featured
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Aug 20: Stanley Burns speaks at new Gettysburg PA medical museum
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
National Museum of Civil War Medicine criticized for logo
D.C. tourism guide rejects Frederick museum's ad containing Confederate Flag
July 22nd 2016
http://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/ad-doesnt-fly-in-dc
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
A somewhat skewed article on the Army Medical Museum
Four More Heads for the Indian Trophy Room
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/06/15/four-more-heads-indian-trophy-room-164780
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
June 22: NLM James H. Cassedy History of Medicine Lecture
Dear Colleagues,
You are cordially invited to the next NLM History of Medicine lecture, to be held on Wednesday, June 22, from 2 pm to 3pm in the NLM Lister Hill Auditorium, Building 38A, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD. For this year's James H. Cassedy Memorial Lecture, W. Bruce Fye, MD, MA, Emeritus Professor of Medicine and the History of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, will speak on "The Origins and Evolution of the Mayo Clinic from 1864 to 1939: A Minnesota Family Practice Becomes an International 'Medical Mecca'"
This presentation will describe the origins and international impact of the Mayo Clinic through 1939, the year that William J. and Charles H. Mayo died. Multispecialty group practice was invented at Mayo at the beginning of the twentieth century. A visiting Canadian surgeon wrote in 1906, "Specialization and cooperation, with the best that can be had in each department, is here the motto. Cannot these principles be tried elsewhere?" Dr. Fye will address the Mayo Clinic's major (and underappreciated) role in the development of rigorous postgraduate (specialty) training. Unlike traditional academic medical centers that emphasize research, Mayo's main mission has always been patient care. This patient-centered activity has been undertaken in an environment enriched by extensive programs devoted to specialty training and clinical research. The clinic's long-standing culture of collaboration is cited as one of the key ingredients of its success.
This lecture will be live-streamed globally, and subsequently archived, by NIH VideoCasting:
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, or the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).
In addition, we warmly welcome you to visit our blog, "Circulating Now," where you can learn more about the collections and related programs of the History of Medicine Division of the NLM:
http://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/
Here also you can read interviews with previous lecturers:
http://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/tag/lecture/
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
301-827-4577
Friday, June 10, 2016
Job opening at NMHM
There is a rare opening at the National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) for someone with the right combination of skills (osteology, anatomy, museum collections management.) Application period closes June 22.
MUSEUM SPECIALIST (ANATOMICAL)
Defense Health Agency
https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/441147300/Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Mountain Meadows Massacre skull subject to Congressional scrutiny at NMHM
In Senate, Arkansans request new life for a child's burial
Boozman: Get skull out of museum
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2016/jun/07/in-senate-new-life-for-a-child-s-burial/Sunday, May 22, 2016
Ebenstein on her new wax Venuses book
The Strangest Book of 2016 is 'The Anatomical Venus'
Monday, May 16, 2016
Edinburgh University's Anatomical Museum has an app
Grisly medical museum opens to virtual world for first time
The Macabre artefacts from Scotland's medical history will be virtually on show for the first time.
http://stv.tv/news/east-central/1354232-grisly-medical-museum-opens-to-virtual-world-for-first-time/
Thursday, May 5, 2016
The 2016 Spurgeon Neel Award open for submissions
Named in honor of Major General (Retired) Spurgeon H. Neel, first Commanding General of Health Services Command (now U.S. Army Medical Command), the award competition is open to all federal employees, military and civilian, as well as nongovernmental civilian authors. More information about MG (Ret) Neel can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spurgeon_Neel.
The AMEDD Museum Foundation will present a special medallion award and a $500 monetary prize to the winner at a Foundation-sponsored event early in 2017. The winning submission will be published in the AMEDD Journal during 2017.
All manuscripts must be submitted to the AMEDD Museum Foundation by September 30, 2016. At the time of submission, a manuscript must be original work and not pending publication in any other periodical. It must conform to the Writing and Submission Guidance of the AMEDD Journal, and must relate to the history, legacy, and/or traditions of the Army Medical Department. Manuscripts will be reviewed and evaluated by a six-member board with representatives from the AMEDD Museum Foundation, the AMEDD Center of History and Heritage, and the AMEDD Journal. The winning manuscript will be selected and announced in December 2016.
Submit manuscripts to amedd.foundation@att.net. Additional details concerning the Spurgeon Neel Annual Award may be obtained by contacting Mrs. Sue McMasters at the AMEDD Museum Foundation, 210-226-0265.
Friday, April 8, 2016
An article about exhibiting human bodies
http://theconversation.com/reconsidering-body-worlds-why-do-we-still-flock-to-exhibits-of-dead-human-beings-57024
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Archivist and curator jobs open at NMHM
Job Title: ARCHIVIST
Department: Department of Defense
Agency: Defense Health Agency
Silver Spring, MD View Map
https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/431610700/
Department: Department of Defense
Agency: Defense Health Agency
Hiring Organization: DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY
Silver Spring, MD View Map
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
St. Elizabeths brains at NMHM
Monday, March 7, 2016
New book on museums and human remains out
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
The Grog, A Journal of Navy Medical History and Culture--Issue 44
It is with great pleasure that we offer you the latest ration of The Grog, A Journal of Navy Medical History and Culture. In this edition we look back at the Navy's fight against tuberculosis in the decades before antibiotics. Partly inspired by the work of a tubercular physician in the Adirondacks and a new method of treatment he popularized, in 1906 the Navy established a
special hospital in a landlocked state that served only tubercular Sailors and Marines. In our cover story we revisit this vanguard institution and look at the innovative methods for treating the so-called "incurables." We follow this story with an eclectic line-up of articles including our latest installment of our "year in review" series, as well as first-hand accounts of independent hospital corps duty in the South Pole and the curious, but true tale of how a Navy physician used a sigmoidoscope to save (USS) America.
As always, we hope you enjoy this tour of the high seas of Navy Medicine's past!
The Grog is accessible through the link below. PDF versions are available upon request. Those currently on the PDF Mailing list will receive a separate e-mail.
http://issuu.com/thegrogration/docs/the_grog__issue_44
Very Respectfully,
André B. Sobocinski
Historian
Communications Directorate (M09B7)
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED)
Tel: (703) 681-2473
Email: andre.b.sobocinski.civ@mail.mil
Got Navy Medical History?
http://www.med.navy.mil/bumed/nmhistory/
Friday, February 19, 2016
New Orleans' Pharmacy Museum profiled
Opium-soaked tampons, voodoo elixirs and leeches: welcome to New Orleans' Pharmacy Museum
Located in the townhouse of the US's first licensed pharmacist, this lively, macabre, cringe-inducing museum provides a refreshing re-contextualization of its many artifacts and an unflinching encounter with our mortality
Friday 16 January 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/jan/16/new-orleans-pharmacy-museum-opium-soaked-tampons-voodoo-elixirs
Coyle collection uploaded to Medical Heritage Library
Scanned and online here are instructions to medical officers upon joining the Haven, her letters home to her mother and her photographs.
72 items are available at this link - https://archive.org/details/SCN0024
Unfortunately the link was autogenerated, so doesn't make much sense in as a human term.
Only part of the collection was digitized and uploaded. Coyle's service record and her annotated copy of the Haven's cruise book have not been scanned. The originals of her letters remain with her family and BUMED was provided with digital copies.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
NMHM archivist Boyle featured on NLM blog
In the Belly of the Beast: A History of Alternative Medicine at the NIH
by Circulating NowDr. Eric Boyle spoke today at the National Library of Medicine on "In the Belly of the Beast: A History of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health." Dr. Boyle is Chief Archivist at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Circulating Now interviewed him about his work.