Digitization proposed for former Armed Forces Institute of Pathology collection

Pentagon plans to digitize the largest repository of disease-related medical data in the world

The Department of Defense wants a digital repository of its 55 million tissue samples going back over 100 years

Tim Hinchliffe

https://sociable.co/technology/pentagon-plans-to-digitize-the-largest-repository-of-disease-related-medical-data-in-the-world/

That's the former Armed Forces Institute of Pathology collection with many pre-World War II Army Medical Museum specimens.

As of 2011, they were scanning patient records and creating metadata, but then the AFIP was BRAC'd and recreated as the JPC. How does one digitize wax tissue blocks? Or wet tissue?

RIP Ron Wallace, a mainstay of the Borden Institute

The history of military medicine lost a member of the community this past week. Ron Wallace will not be known to most of you, but he was a mainstay of the US Army's Borden Institute's publishing, including many history of military medicine titles.

The friends and coworkers of Ronald Eugene Wallace mourn his passing last week. Ron, a former US Air Force master sergeant (and then long-time first sergeant), died in a fire in his home in Maryland. During the same week, the US Government Printing Office was praising the Borden's books in two blog posts - here and here.

I personally knew Ron when I worked at the National Museum of Health and Medicine and they published one of our exhibit catalogs, a history of the Walter Reed Medical Center, and a book on the last days of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. At the same time, they were doing the Textbooks of Military Medicine, books with current information on how to treat the injuries the military was suffering from in our ongoing wars. Ron always stood ramrod straight, was generous to a fault, and was garrulous. It was always a pleasure to walk down the hill and into the old building and run into him. In my head, although it hasn't been true for 9 years, he's still standing in the former nursing school, waiting to hand out the latest book.

Senior Layout Editor Douglas Wise remembers Ron:

Before his retirement last July, Ron spent 27 years working at Borden Institute, joining in 1992 as the administrator and office manager. His name rarely made it into the books, but almost 70 books on military medicine stand as tribute to his efforts making sure those whose names do appear could do their jobs with as little difficulty or obstacle as he could prevent. He helped build a library of books that resides in the Pentagon, the White House, and in the pocket of every soldier who goes through training today.

If you met Ron even once, then you know you met him and you've heard his stories. If you met Ron a second or third time then you heard those stories again, as well as some new ones. You could work with him for eighteen years and still get new stories out of him in addition to those stories you heard retold... weekly.

Ron's friendly and outgoing nature made him the face of Borden Institute. He was the first person you saw when you came to the office, he was out making friends with everyone who came to our exhibits, personally coaxing paperwork through the military bureaucracy faster than anyone else, and making sure that the brass, all the way up to the Surgeon General of the Army, knew who we were. One could (and did) find themselves on jury duty, on the subway, in a gathering of complete strangers, and find someone there who knew Ron Wallace.

And he took each person he met as their own person. There was no prejudging someone based on their accent, how much melanin they have in their skin, their views on the afterlife, or office gossip. If Ron took a disliking to you then you can be sure it was because of something you actually said or did.
 
It was a loss to Borden and the US military as a whole when Ron retired and a greater loss to our hearts and lives to learn of his passing.

Dr. Dave Lounsbury, COL, USA (ret.) recalls:

He and Lorraine Davis were the glue that held the Borden Institute together. Lorraine as Managing Editor kept track of books developing in the pipeline. Ron as Administrative Chief (I swear I don't think I ever learned what his title actually was) was absolutely superb at managing our budget. He seemed to know just about everyone at the budget offices of OTSG (US Army Office of the Surgeon General) and WRAMC (Walter Reed Army Medical Center). He protected the budget like it was his child. Borden was always something of a bastard child in the AMEDD (US Army Medical Department). The budget was forever at or near the chopping block. But time & time again, with his enormously reassuring (to me) "Don't worry. Let me handle this," Ron would salvage our financial survival. Not a few times, instead of a cut we got an increase! He was instrumental at increasing our staff. He finessed this entirely on his own. Lorraine and I might kibitz but he did it alone -- kept our books straight, excelled at every budget review, justified our purpose ... I marveled at his style.

He listened to most of the relentless gossip of the BI but I can't say I ever knew him to join it. Not his thing. Ron didn't speak ill of his colleagues. Now & then he'd grumble -- appropriately -- about one or another, but he never slammed them. Not a few times, I can confess, I was not so temperate or charitable -- furious at one or another staff member. Ron would listen, but he didn't join in. That reserve of his often gave me a bit of pause in my judgements once I calmed down. I valued him. Goodness knows he could talk your ear off, for hours at a time. But it was never vindictive stuff, always harmless, just tales of yore ... himself usually the hero. He was very slow to anger. But when he did boil over -- a truly rare occurrence -- the occasion invariably warranted it. I can only recall two of these.

He was thoroughly honest. He was thoroughly respectful. He came to work convinced that the what the Borden Inst produced was sui generis and absolutely worth preserving. No visitor could come by and then get away without being showered with books & info regarding what we published.

He had a finely tuned and curious ability to transfer allegiance such as I had never encountered before or since. One day my predecessor was the Director and Ron directed his attention solely toward that individual --even though he was totally aware that the fellow had been sacked. The next day I was in charge and, snap-of-a-finger, Ron was fully on board. I couldn't help notice this. Normally it might take a week or a month to make these transitions. Ron did so instantaneously. Impossible not to notice. I pointed it out to him one day long after I had settled in. It was a compliment to him. He simply shrugged.Of course, four or so years later it was my turn to transition out. Sure enough: though I stayed on to complete a couple of works in progress, there was no mistaking his redirection of attention and duties. I wasn't the boss anymore.My ego survived and we stayed close friends.

Ron, and Lorraine, did most of the work. I got all the credit.

He was a good man -- to Nancy, to his daughter, to his job, to his country.

The Homegoing Service for Ron will be held at Vaughn Green Funeral Services, 8728 Liberty Road,  Randallstown MD 21133. You may visit their website for details. On Monday, February 3rd from 4pm to 8pm there will be a Public Viewing and Tuesday February 4th, the wake begins at 10am, the funeral begins at 10:30 am. 

Dr Joy, military medical historian, died in 2019

Dr. Robert J.T. Joy,  Legendary USU Professor,  Passes Away

By Dr. Dale Smith

January 08, 2020

https://usupulse.blogspot.com/2020/01/dr-robert-jt-joy-legendary-usu.html

Measles genotyped from Berlin medical museum specimen

The Virus Buried in a 100-Year-Old Lung

Scientists have managed to sequence the genome of a measles virus that infected a 2-year-old girl who died in 1912.

Sarah Zhang

January 9, 2020

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/01/what-100-year-old-lung-says-about-measles-origin/604591/

NMHM and research on Einstein's brain

Expert Interest in Albert Einstein's Brain

SEPTEMBER 03, 2019

MD Magazine

https://www.mdmag.com/peers-perspectives/einstein-brain/expert-interest-in-albert-einsteins-brain

NMHM digitizing bones

Modernizing Medical Museums through the 3D Digitization of Pathological Specimens

Kristen Pearlstein, Anatomical Collections Manager and Brian Spatola, Anatomical Curator | June 6, 2019

https://www.medicalmuseum.mil/micrograph/index.cfm/posts/2019/modernizing_medical_museums_through_the_3d_digitization_of_pathological_specimens

NMHM 'vampire' skeleton featured in Washington Post

A 'vampire's' remains were found about 30 years ago. Now DNA is giving him new life.

By Michael E. Ruane

Reporter covering local news, Washington institutions and historical topics

July 31 2019

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/07/31/vampires-remains-were-found-about-years-ago-now-dna-is-giving-him-new-life/ 

AFIP and NMHM mentioned in memo as having aliens from Roswell

'Fake' Roswell alien autopsy video was REAL and CIA scientist saw
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/

Indiana Medical History Museum profiled

Former mental hospital houses medical museum

South Bend Tribune

INDIANAPOLIS — In the shadows of old wooden bookcases sit jars filled with embalming fluid preserving decades-old brains that have signs of ...

https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/former-mental-hospital-houses-medical-museum/article_37504499-04f9-5a9d-bde9-b14b5560fdf8.html

NMHM and Dittrick curators on medical equipment

Left to their own devices

A look at the evolution of five now-essential medical tools.

Friday, March 22, 2019 |by Lindsay Kalter, Staff Writer

https://news.aamc.org/research/article/left-their-own-devices/

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

Sarah Leavitt · CBC Feb 21, 2019

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/maude-abbott-honoured-1.5028047

NMHM sued for access to collection

Innocence Project sues museum for access to archives on 'tragically flawed' bite-mark evidence

By Debra Cassens Weiss

ABA Journal February 21, 2019,

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/innocence-project-files-first-amendment-suit-over-denied-access-to-museums-bite-mark-archives

The 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.....

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

By Sadie Dingfelder

Express January 17 2019

https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/2019/01/17/national-museum-health-medicine-is-fascinating-nightmare/

McGill's Medical Museum opens to public

McGill's Maude Abbott Medical Museum opens its collection to the public University Affairs 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 ...

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

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#jCp

Wayne Meyers, leprosy specialist at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, has passed away

The Washington Post ran an obituary for Dr. Meyers.

A 1993 oral history done for the Museum can be seen online.

McGill Medical Museum featured in local paper

Restored museum unlocks McGill's medical history McGill Tribune 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 ...

http://www.mcgilltribune.com/sci-tech/restored-museum-unlocks-mcgills-medical-history-091018/

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.

by Maya Prabhu

September 21, 2018

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/nimhans-brain-museum

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

Fri 21 Sep 2018

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/sep/21/i-want-to-be-plastinated-when-i-die

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.

CBC Radio · September 18 2018

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/hearts-brains-and-bones-visitors-to-new-museum-will-come-a-little-closer-to-death-1.4828244

McGill University reopens medical museum

Bones, brains, bladders: McGill opens body parts museum to the public

Interactive tablets will offer insights on the specimens, and "we'll also be telling the story of grave-robbing."

Bill Brownstein, Montreal Gazette September 18, 2018

https://www.thesudburystar.com/opinion/columnists/bones-brains-bladders-mcgill-opens-body-parts-museum-to-the-public/wcm/180f1b63-a006-44ed-af75-9233ae6f38e1

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

August 2, 2018
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.

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.mil
301-319-3303

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."

Andrew Giambrone

June 1, 2018, p. 8-11
https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/21007233/independent-scholars-uncover-the-traumatic-treatments-lgbtq-people-suffered-at-st-elizabeths

NY Times photo essay on medical tools

Photos of Gynecological Tools From Centuries Past

By Remy Tumin

April 16, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/lens/historical-gynecological-tools.html

And the photographer's website is : https://www.lindseybeal.com/parturition/

Thanks to Alan Hawk of the NMHM who pointed out the article.

Mutter Museum featured in Washington Post

In Philadelphia, a medical museum puts the human body on display

By Liz Langley
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

John Kelly of the Washington Post on AMM building

Answer Man reconstructs the history of two very cool 19th-century Mall buildings

Washington Post

The medical museum was at 10th and E streets NW in a building that had ... Thus the remedy: a new home for the Army Medical Museum at Seventh ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/answer-man-reconstructs-the-history-of-two-very-cool-19th-century-mall-buildings/2017/11/04/ee66bdba-bf2f-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html

He includes a Post citation that I didn't know about...

Cushing's brain collection at Yale

In a basement on Yale's campus, a 'shop of horrors' concealed medical history

By Bob Tedeschi @bobtedeschi

October 31, 2017

https://www.statnews.com/2017/10/31/brains-yale-cushing-center/

Australia want's skull in Mutter Museum repatriated

Australia seeks soldier's skull held at Philadelphia's Mutter Museum

Newsworks.org

This July 12, 1999, file photo shows a portion of the two floors of the Mutter Museum, a medical museum in Philadelphia. Australian politician Lynda ...

NMHM gets some executive branch interest

Readout of Second Lady Karen Pence's visit to the National Museum of Health and Medicine

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/09/25/readout-second-lady-karen-pences-visit-national-museum-health-and

Minor Civil War medical museums article in the Washington Post

A triage trail reveals the breakthroughs — and horrors — of Civil War medicine

Washington Post

My interest was piqued years ago during a visit to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, which is full of Civil War-era artifacts such as Union ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/a-triage-trail-reveals-the-breakthroughs--and-horrors--of-civil-war-medicine/2017/09/06/c2c6cb6e-786c-11e7-8839-ec48ec4cae25_story.html

Editorial on NMHM repatriation

Op-ed: Mountain Meadows Massacre victim deserves better than anonymous burial

Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/5480249-155/op-ed-mountain-meadows-massacre-victim-deserves

The National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) has refused requests from six families to identify their child murdered at the Mountain Meadow Massacre ...

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.gov/ImagesofAmericaNLM

 and original versions of the 170+ images which appear in the book in black and white:

 https://go.usa.gov/xNfnw

 Learn more about this new, publicly-available publication here:

 https://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/illustrated-history-nlm-published-2017.html

 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/visitor.html

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

A poison garden featured on NPR

Welcome To The Poison Garden: Medicine's Medieval Roots

Joanne Silberner

April 27, 2017
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/04/27/525143152/welcome-to-the-poison-garden-medicines-medieval-roots

Budapest's ‘Hospital in the Rock’ medical museum

Interesting feature on a cave hospital used in WWII and the Hungarian uprising that is now a museum - http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170421-budapests-secret-underground-hospital

Pharmacy museums featured on Atlas Obscura

What Ho, Apothecary! 18 Intriguing Pharmacy Museums

Take a calmative and visit one of these preserved drug preparers.

By Molly McBride Jacobson, Staff Writer

http://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/pharmacy-museums-world

WWI material at Rose Melnick Medical Museum

World War I centennial display opens April 29

Youngstown Vindicator
http://www.vindy.com/news/2017/apr/16/world-war-i/?newswatch

... at www.digital.maag.ysu.edu., by clicking on digital collections and then on the Rose Melnick Medical Museum and Base Hospital 31 glass slides.

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

https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2017/04/05/world-war-i-centenary-forum-the-frances-dupuy-fletcher-photo-album/

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

The Army Medical Department Museum Foundation is pleased to sponsor the 2017 Spurgeon Neel Annual Award competition for the article of 5000 words or less that best exemplifies the history, legacy, and traditions of the Army Medical Department.

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.

April 6: Sarah Eilers speaks on WWI facial reconstruction

World War I Centenary Forum: Masking Devastation

by Circulating Now

Sarah 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/

Mobile Medical Museum featured on tv

Mobile Medical Museum full of interesting artifacts

  Mar 24, 2017
 By Lee Peck, FOX10 News Reporter
http://www.fox10tv.com/story/34994918/mobile-medical-museum-full-of-interesting-artifacts

Major exhibit on St. Elizabeths mental hospital opens in DC

When we thought mental illness could be cured with architecture

By Sadie Dingfelder
Express March 232017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2017/03/23/when-we-thought-mental-illness-could-be-cured-with-architecture/

New York Academy of Medicine archivist featured online

Rebecca Pou | Movers & Shakers 2017 – Digital Developers

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2017/03/people/movers-shakers-2017/rebecca-pou-movers-shakers-2017-digital-developers/

St. Elizabeths hospital exhibit at National Building Museum

Architecture of an Asylum: St Elizabeths 1852-2017
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.

The Octagon House is the architects society's museum and it got a large model of the hospital (over my objections).

Here's a short piece from the Washington City Paper on some of the Medical Museum's holdings:

What's Inside Box No. 1997.0015 OHA 293.23?

March 21: Shelley McKellar speaks on artificial hearts at NLM

[I saw a much earlier version of this research, and recommend this].

You are cordially invited to the next NLM History of Medicine lecture, to be held on Tuesday, March 21, from 2pm to 3:30pm in the NLM Lister Hill Auditorium, Building 38A, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.  This special program will be the first annual NLM Michael E. DeBakey Lecture in the History of Medicine. This is a new annual lecture at the NLM which honors the legacy of Michael E. DeBakey as it exists in modern medical practice and in the ongoing public service of the NLM.

This year, there will be two speakers at this inaugural event:

"'Intentional Impact' The Legacy of Michael E. DeBakey Beyond the Operating Room"

Shelley McKellar, PhD, The Jason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine, Associate Professor, with Joint Appointment with the Department of Surgery, Western University, Canada

"A Brief Look at Michael E. DeBakey's Role in Establishing the National Library of Medicine as It Is Today"

George P. Noon, MD, Professor of Surgery, Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine

The NLM Michael E. DeBakey Lecture in the History of Medicine is supported by a generous gift to the NLM by the Michael E. DeBakey Medical Foundation

This lecture will be live-streamed globally, and subsequently archived, by NIH VideoCasting:

https://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?live=22006&bhcp=1

All are welcome.

Sign language interpretation is provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate may contact Stephen Greenberg at 301-827-4577, e-mail stephen.greenberg@nih.gov, or via 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

Section Head, Rare Books & Early Manuscripts

History of Medicine Division

National Library of Medicine, NIH

301-827-4577

stephen.greenberg@nih.gov

Rhode & Conner blog on Civil War plastic surgery

Mending the Broken Faces of War

February 15th, 2017
http://www.civilwarmed.org/facial-reconstruction/

Search for new Director - Florence Nightingale Museum in London

The Board of Trustees are currently recruiting for a new Director at the Florence Nightingale Museum in London – please see link below.

 

https://jobs.theguardian.com/job/6470232/director/

 

 

 

The Florence Nightingale Museum

Museum: 020 7188 4400

Direct line: 020 7188 2830

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FOR MORE DETAILS:

www.florence-nightingale.co.uk

 

Margaret Humprhies on Civil War Medicine

The Marrow of Tragedy: Disease and Diversity in Civil War Medicine

http://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2017/02/15/the-marrow-of-tragedy-disease-and-diversity-in-civil-war-medicine/

Edward Jenner Museum in financial trouble

Museum At The Birthplace Of Vaccination Needs Booster Dose Of Funds To Stay Open

Tara Haelle

Jan 31, 2017

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2017/01/31/museum-at-birthplace-of-vaccination-needs-booster-dose-of-funds-to-stay-open/#d955ceb48cd1

Medical illustration blog at National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Military Medical Illustration: A Civil War Invention?

by JTH Connor and Michael Rhode

 February 4th, 2017
http://www.civilwarmed.org/medical-illustration/

Medical photography of the plague

What are Medical Photographs of Plague?

By Lukas Engelmann

By remedianetwork / January 31, 2017
https://remedianetwork.net/2017/01/31/what-are-medical-photographs-of-plague/

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/places/under-the-black-eagle-pharmacy-museum

Michael Sappol on medical photography

Anatomy's Photography: Objectivity, showmanship and the reinvention of the anatomical image 1860-1950

By Michael Sappol

By remedianetwork / January 23, 2017 / 

https://remedianetwork.net/2017/01/23/anatomys-photography-objectivity-showmanship-and-the-reinvention-of-the-anatomical-image-1860-1950/

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

University at Buffalo Museum of Neuroanatomy featured on tv

Unique Places: Buffalo's Brain Museum

http://www.wgrz.com/news/unique-places-buffalos-brain-museum/343981718

Dittrick Museum featured

Inside Cleveland's fascinating Dittrick Museum of Medical History (video, event schedule)

cleveland.com

Inside Cleveland's fascinating Dittrick Medical Museum. "Traditionally, the Dittrick had been a museum for doctors," said Edmonson. "But when we ...

Aug 20: Stanley Burns speaks at new Gettysburg PA medical museum

From: Stanley Burns

I will be giving the inaugural address at the opening of a new Civil War medical museum in Gettysburg, at the The Daniel Lady Farm. The farm and Barn was a Confederate staging area during the battle and now will be dedicated as part a new medical museum. I will be lecturing and also supervising an amputation. There will be re-enactors for various events.

The Daniel Lady farm on July 2, 1863  served as a staging area for Major General Edward Johnson's divisions of Confederate regiments for the attack on the Union Flank at Culps Hill. The farm was converted to a field hospital by July 3rd for seriously wounded Confederates who were then left at the hospital as the Confederates retreated south after the battle.

I will be lecturing on the amazing medical photographs of wounded soldiers taken by Dr Reed Brockway Bontecou, Surgeon-In-Charge of Harewood US Army General Hospital Washington DC, as well as my work as the on set medical consultant to PBS's Civil War drama, Mercy Street.

http://www.destinationgettysburg.com/event/details/10562

http://www.gbpa.org/Daniel-Lady-Farm.html

National Museum of Civil War Medicine criticized for logo

D.C. tourism guide rejects Frederick museum's ad containing Confederate Flag

By Jeff Abell
July 22nd 2016
http://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/ad-doesnt-fly-in-dc

A somewhat skewed article on the Army Medical Museum

Four More Heads for the Indian Trophy Room

Robert Aquinas McNally

6/15/16

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/06/15/four-more-heads-indian-trophy-room-164780

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:

 

http://videocast.nih.gov/

 

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

greenbes@mail.nih.gov

 

Job opening at NMHM

Medical Museum Job announcement:
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/

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

By Frank Lockwood

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2016/jun/07/in-senate-new-life-for-a-child-s-burial/