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.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
AAHM Special, Continued
The Bronze Medal of the Interstate Postgraduate Medical Association Of North America presented to William J. Mayo. NCP 1086:

AAHM special - Mayo pictures
Major William Mayo, Medical Corps. World War 1. (Reeve 972-2)
The Finlay Congressional Distinguished Service Medal of the Republic of
Cuba awarded to Dr. W.J. Mayo in January 1929. (NCP 1088)
Letter of the Day: April 29 - Census
Department of the Interior,
Census Office,
Washington, D.C., April 29, 1889
Sir:
By direction of the Superintendent of Census, Miss Sara E. Nolan, of the District of Columbia, a computer in this office, will report to you for duty on Wednesday morning, May 1.
Please report Miss Nolan's time to the Superintendent monthly.
Very respectfully,
J.H. Wardle,
Acting Chief Clerk
Dr. John S. Billings
In Charge
Mortality and Vital Statitics, Eleventh Census
City
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
More "letterhead" from the collection
Letter of the Day: April 28 - parasitic worms
1302 Fillnut St.
April 28, 1886
Dear Dr. Billings,
About a year ago you wrote to me proposing to send to me for identification some specimens of entozoa in the Army Medical Museum. If you will now at your convenience have the collection sent to the following address, at my leisure, I will examine the speciments and in due time report therein.
Sincerely yours,
Joseph Leidy
Address
Prof. Joseph Leidy
Biological Dept University of Pennsylvania
West Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pa
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Letter of the Day: April 27
Washington, April 27, 1874
Dear Doctor.
I send you a letter from a correspondent in Florida, who seems to have struck a vein. Please return this as soon as you have perused it, + let me know whether you can authorise (sic) him to expense any money, say, ten, twenty, or thirty dollars or more, in excavating for the skulls + skeletons of dead Indians.
Very truly yours,
Spencer F. Baird
Dr. Geo. A. Otis
Army Medical Museum,
Washington
(a note written on the letter says ‘no enclosure was rec’d’)
Monday, April 26, 2010
Installed AAOS exhibit at Russell senate office building

From the Museum's press release:
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE AND UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE TO FEATURE 'WOUNDED IN ACTION: AN ART EXHIBITION OF ORTHOPAEDIC ADVANCEMENTS'
Washington, D.C. – March 31, 2010: "Wounded in Action: An Art Exhibition of Orthopaedic Advancements," an exhibit of art works inspired by experiences with the wounds of war, will have its first major installation at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. and the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB), in May 2010, after a one-week exhibition in a United States Senate office building in the nation’s capital. "Wounded in Action" is produced and organized by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), which premiered the exhibition at its annual meeting in New Orleans in March.
"Wounded in Action" celebrates those who have had orthopaedic injuries as a result of serving our country during a time of war. From World War II to Korea to Viet Nam, from the Gulf War, to Afghanistan to Iraq, thousands of uniformed service members have suffered severe musculoskeletal injuries. Their stories are told through the art on display in the installation. The exhibition also recognizes orthopaedic surgeons who, throughout history, have risked their own safety to care for military service members, to save lives and limbs, to advance medical treatments, and to conduct research and learn from war in order to better treat those who sustain orthopaedic trauma.
"Wounded in Action" will see its Washington, D.C. premiere at the Russell Senate Office Building the week of April 26-30, 2010.
In May, the entire juried exhibition will be concurrently installed in two locations in the Baltimore/Washington region: at the NMHM in Washington and at UMB’s Health Sciences/Human Services Library and Southern Management Corporation Campus Center, in downtown Baltimore. Both locations will be open to the public and the exhibition is available free of charge. (See below for specific exhibition information.)
"The intersection of medicine and the humanities is central to this exhibition and we’re honored to partner with AAOS and the University of Maryland, Baltimore in offering the public the opportunity to engage this important show," said Adrianne Noe, Ph.D., Director of the NMHM. "As a medical museum located on a military medical installation, we’re intimately familiar with the present-day consequences of war injuries. And, historically, our collections have played an integral role in the development of new and innovative technologies to improve the quality of life of wounded warriors and their families."
NMHM has a considerable interest in documenting advances in prosthetics and orthopaedic surgery, with hundreds of objects included in the Museum’s Historical Collections. Instruments that document the history of amputation range from Revolutionary War-era amputation knives to Civil War-era surgical kits and modern 20th-century stainless steel amputation saws. A large collection of artificial limbs, dating from the post Civil War era to modern examples, is also in the collection and on display in the Museum’s Civil War medicine and battlefield surgery exhibits. Highlights include a circa 1850 G.W. Yearger Artificial Leg, the first patented artificial limb; two artificial limbs made by American POWs during the World War II; and an Otto Bock C-Leg issued to amputees wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. The history of total joint arthroplasty is represented by a mock-up of the Jules Pean's artificial shoulder implant of 1890; a collection of joint prosthetics developed by the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City; and the prototype UCI Total Knee.
"Statistics on war injuries are stark and startling – but by telling personal stories of the men and women who have demonstrated extreme courage, endured extreme loss and persevered through a healing process – we hope to truly honor our troops," said AAOS President John J. Callaghan, MD. "We also honor the orthopaedic surgeons and all who serve as military medical caregivers. "Wounded in Action" not only is a collection of artwork, it also is a collection of stories of both pain and renewal."
"As Maryland's public academic healthcare center, UMB is delighted to be partnering with AAOS and the National Museum of Health and Medicine to bring this provocative exhibit to Baltimore," said James L. Hughes, MBA, Vice President, Office of Research and Development at UMB. "By portraying the challenges in repairing war’s assault on the human body and spirit, the artwork will inspire the thousands of healthcare students, clinicians, and researchers at UMB and throughout Greater Baltimore."
Installed AAOS exhibit at Russell senate office building
Installed AAOS exhibit at Russell senate office building
Installed AAOS exhibit at Russell senate office building
Letter of the Day: April 26 - the Peabody Museum sends thanks
Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology
Harvard University
F.W. Putnam,
Curator of the Museum,
Cambridge, Mass, Apr 26 1876
My dear Dr. Otis
Many thanks for your kindness in sending me the negative which arrived today. I have sent it to Mr. Edwards without unpacking + shall have a proof from him at once. If it turns out all right would you like copies for your own use? If so I will have some sent you with the compl.[iments] of our museum as I shall have a number printed on large sheets for special distribution.
We shall greatly value the large photograph you propose sending as all we have now is one of the Cabinet rig which you sent in, which I framed + hung in the museum.
You will be pleased to know that we begin our new building at once, so I hop e in time to have a chance to arrange the museum as it should be. I shall be very much pleased to see you here + and you will kindly send me word when you are to be or in advance, for as I live in Salem + and not at the museum every day I often miss parties here unless they let me know when they are coing.
I congratulate you as arriving so near to the end of your editorial work on the big volume. It was a great undertaking + I fully know the time + attention required for such work. I hope to have some good photorelief figures of the California skulls to go in my report, and I shall be very thankful to you for the use of your measurements as you propose..
Faithfully yours,
F.W. Putnam
To Dr. G.A. Otis, U.S.A.
Curator Army Medical Museum
Washington, D.C.





























