Thursday, August 12, 2010
Aug 12: Museum closed this afternoon
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Letter of the Day: August 12
REEVE 001551-1 Anatomy, comparative. Opossum skeleton, Australian, front view. [Bones.]
United States National Museum
Washington, D.C.
Aug 12/85.
Dear Sir.
I trust that you will kindly overlook the delay in calling for the balance of skeletons transferred from the Army Medical Museum to the U.S. National Museum. This delay arose from several causes, the principal being lack of accommodation – until recently at the U.S.N.M. Then too I have but one assistant to do all the osteological work and the arranging of specimens in the Museum. Trusting that I may have caused no serious inconvenience I remain
Very respectfully
Frederic A. Lucas.
Ass’t. Dep’t. Comparative Anatomy
W. Matthews M.D.
Asss’t Surgeon U.S.A.
REEVE 001561-1 Anatomy, comparative. Ornithorynchus, duck-bill mole, side view.
[Bones.]
REEVE 01558-1 Anatomy, comparative. Salamander from Japan, sirboldia maxima[?], side
view. [Bones.]
"Faber Hour" Weekly Drop-In Sketching Sessions
“Faber Hour” Weekly Drop-In Sketching Sessions
When: Every Thursday in August and September, beginning Thursday, August 12, 2010 (tomorrow!)
Time: 3:45 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Cost: Free!
Where:
The National Museum of Health and Medicine
6900 Georgia Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20307
What: Join the National Museum of Health and Medicine each week for “Faber Hour.” Hermann Faber was an Army Medical Museum illustrator during and after the Civil War and is widely known for his meticulous anatomical sketches. “Faber Hours” are drop-in sessions for persons interested in spending directed attention on anatomical, historical or art objects in the Museum. “Faber Hours” will be led by a Museum staffer with a background in medical illustration. Free, no reservations necessary. Bring a small sketchbook and pencils.
NMHM is located in Building 54 on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Limited visitor parking is available in the driveway in front of the museum. Additional free parking is available throughout the campus on weekends. Adults are required to present photo ID to gain entry to Walter Reed.
For more information about this program, visit www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum or call 202-782-2673. For specific information about directions and parking, visit www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum/about/directions.html.
NMHM on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MedicalMuseum
NMHM on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MedicalMuseum
A blast from the (recent) past: Windows 1996
Back to the topic at hand: The Awesomely-Exciting Intern Project. The project is going well, it seems like every thing that I am currently doing is related more to the design of our site (and how to manipulate the program used to create it) than the information on it. But I like designing and fiddling with programs, so its fun. The most challenging part since Rebecca left has been figuring out the new program. I think the buttons gave me the most trouble. All I wanted to do was make a back and forward button to make the site cyclical, or at least add another “table of contents-like button menu” (which I eventually did figure out how to do). But before I figured it out, I had tried the “just-copy-and-paste-pages-in-attempts-to-make-links-to-everywhere-that-the-page-should-be-linked-to” method (this method does not work). I was tempted to give up on the program and just write a (very) basic HTML coding for the site, and no, I didn’t consider looking at the giant user’s manual Liz gave me. Where would the fun have been in that? My next challenge will be figuring out how to get rid of the blue background on some of images we are using with Photoshop.
I usually have an image. I can’t show you the site so far and Liz has moved her Wednesday Lunch Time Art to Thursday afternoons, but I do have the organic structure of Vitamin A that I drew. That doesn’t really count does it?
Letter of the Day: August 11
Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 99
August 11, 1894
Dr. Wm. C. Woodward,
Health Officer, District of Columbia,
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
I beg to report that a careful bacteriological examination has been made in the Laboratory of this Museum of a sample of water received on Monday, August 6th, from the well corner of Sixth and O Streets, N.W.
All plates made from this water contain numerous colonies of faecal bacteria. Two of the organisms have been carefully worked out, and one is identified as the Bacillus Coli Communis, -- the other as Lactia Aerogenes.
As the result of the bacteriological examination I am of the opinion that this water is of bad quality.
It is probable that a further report will be submitted concerning this water during the coming week.
Very respectfully,
Walter Reed
Major and Surgeon, U. S. Army,
Curator Army Medical Museum.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Letter of the Day: August 10
Fort Brady, Mich.
Augt. 10th. 1875.
My dear Doctor,
Having returned from the cruise which I had determined upon making when I last addressed you - I hasten to give the result of my labors. I left on one of the Canadian Steamers on Thursday, the 1st Inst., for Killarney, 150 miles from Ft. Brady on the north shore of Lake Huron. I there hired a Mackinac boat + two men + started for my hunting ground – an island called “Dead Island”, 45 miles East of Killarney, near the north of French River, in the extreme north east of Lake Huron. I reached Dead Island at 9 a.m. on the 3rd, after an exciting sail of 18 hrs. from Killarney – the coast is rocky + dangerous, +, as there are no lighthouses, the nocturnal portion of our journey was somewhat hazardous. The rocks extend many miles into the Lake, some just under water, + it is difficult to keep clear of them, with a small open sailboat. We had many narrow escapes, + if any accident had occurred, help is so remote that one wd [ie would] surely starve on one of these barren rocks before being discovered. However my men proved themselves skillful sailors, + we suffered no serious mishap.
I then commenced my explorations. Dead Island is situated 8 miles east of the north of French River, + about 2 miles from the mainland. It consists of one huge granite rock, flat + irregular in shape, being perhaps 3/2 of a mile across it, covered here + there with spruce + some underbrush – tamarack +c: it is rather pretty but a very lonely spot being seldom visited even by the Indians, + far removed from any line of travel.
The place where the Indians are buried is on the north east side, of the island, on an elevated ridge of rock – their remains have been collected together, covered with birch-bark, + then small rocks heaped on the birch-bark. These small rocks I am sure had never been disturbed, for they were moss-grown + every thing indicated they had thus lain for ages – or rather years. I removed the stones with my own hands (my men were so superstitious that I cd [ie could] not induce them to assist me) + discovered any quantity of minute fragments of bones (human) – too small I am sorry to say to be of any value – there was not a perfect skull – time + the elements had almost made an end of them. I gathered two parietal bones – one frontal - + one half of the vault of a cranium, which is fractured near the parietal eminence + looks like a wound from a tomahawk. I also secured a few other bones, a knife, two old iron pots, + a small glass vial, marked “King’s Essence Peppermint” on the glass – apparently showing that event took place during the reign of an English King. This vial doubtless fell into Indian hands from some Hudson’s Bay Co. Post.
I was fearfully disappointed in not obtaining more bones, having heard accts. Which justified me in supposing that I might almost fill my boat. It was very interesting examining the place, but you can imagine my feelings after getting nothing at the end of such a long journey.
I had a tedious sail back to Killarney, head-winds +c. 90 miles in an open boat on these waters is quite enough for one trip.
I have many more places to examine thoroughly + trust that I will, before the close of the season, make a good bone-harvest even yet.
Will you please tell me if there are any birch-bark curiosities in the Museum. I wd [ie would] like to send a few specimens of our Indian work here, if there are none.
Yrs. Faithfully,
J.T.H. King
P.S. I will send which bones I now have immediately.
Dr. G. A. Otis
U.S. Army
Monday, August 9, 2010
Our Public Affairs Specialist's Dad works at National Archives
Guardians of the nation's attic
The National Archives keeps watch over 10 billion historical records. And its treasure hunting team keeps watch over collector shows and EBay for the scraps of valuable history that have been stolen.
By Faye Fiore, Los Angeles Times
August 8, 2010
WAMU's Metro Connection on museum exhibit
August 6, 2010
Two new art shows have opened at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C. and at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. It's all part of a traveling exhibit called 'Wounded In Action' put on by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Ginger Moored reports...
The Wounded in Action art exhibit is on display at Walter Reed and the University of Maryland in Baltimore through November 11th.
Letter of the Day: August 9 (2 of 2)
Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 88
August 9, 1864
WJ McGee,
Ethnologist-in-charge,
Smithsonian Institution,
Bureau of Ethnology,
Washington, D.C.
Dear Sir:
Your letter of August 8th, addressed to Dr. Billings, now in Europe, has been referred to me for reply.
We will be pleased to receive the triple trephined skull referred to for deposit in the Army Medical Museum, and would state that the specimen will be at your service at any time for further examination.
Very respectfully,
Walter Reed
Major and Surgeon, U.S. Army,
Curator Army Medical Museum
Letter of the Day: August 8 ( 2 of 2)
Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 88
Smithsonian Institution
Bureau of Ethnology
Washington, D.C., August 8, 1894.
Dear Sir:
Your inquiry of the 14th ultimo concerning the triple-trephined skull found near Cuzco by Dr Maneul A. Muniz and designated by him for presentation to the Army Medical Museum has been received. This skull, together with other specimens in the Muniz collection, remains in the Bureau pending the receipt from Dr Muniz of photographs of drawings of certain other trephined crania in Cuzco; when it is the purpose to prepare a detailed description of the entire collection for publication in one of our annual reports. Until advices are received from Dr. Muniz, it is inexpedient to fix a date for the final disposition of the collection; but should you feel anxious to have this specimen at an early date, I will undertake to put it in your hands by the end of the present month with no condition than that you will afford facilities for further examination in the Museum should occasion arise.
Yours with respect,
WJ McGee
Ethnologist-in-charge.
Dr. J.S. Billings,
Deputy Surgeon General,
U.S. Army.
Letter of the Day: August 9 (1 of 2)
Camp Letterman
Gen’l Hospital
Near Gettysburg, Pa.
Aug. 9th/65
Dear Doctor,
I have numerous specimens for you – have put them in ale barrels with some whisky + chlorinated soda upon them + have buried barrels and all in the ground. What shall I do with them? We will have more every day for a month to come.
Truly yours
H.K. Neff
Surgeon 3rd Div.
Gen’l. Hos.
To Surgeon Brinton
Washington
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Letter of the Day: August 8 (1 of 2)
Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 94
Copy
82 Fourth St.
Troy, N.Y.,
August 8, 1894
Surgeon General, U.S. Army.
Sir:
Pardon the liberty taken in sending you by mail this day, a small package directed to Museum of Surgeon General’s Office, containing four small phials of a strange parasite, great numbers of which have been voided from the bowel of a young lady patient whom I was attending for injury to the spine. Bloody and slimy evacuations occurred, presumably from having much of berries. Oil and terebinthin was administered for some days; masses of transparent jelly was voided, and in a few days these bodies were voided with each evacuation, but more especially after taking turpentine and oil. The patient is about twenty years old, of small, slim stature, and light weight; there is no abdominal tumor, distention or pain, but a feeling of fullness and oppression in the left hypochondrium. The nervous system is much upset. Flushings alternated with cold clammy extremities and frequent paroxysms of voluntary respiration; for the past five days since some calomel and santonin was administered for a few nights no perfect specimens have been voided; but the jelly like substance with fragments of the spiders continue to be voided. When the objects were first voided before the administration of the santonin they were noticed to move, and the appendages which had for some time while in water a tremulous, vibrating movement.
If consistent please inform me what the animal is. I am unable to find in the books any description of them, and greatly oblige,
Your obedient servant,
R. B. Bontecou, M.D.
The original of the above letter was sent informally to Surgeon Walter Reed U.S.A. by Surgeon Charles Smart, U.S.A. by direction of the Surgeon General, with the request that an examination be made of the parasite.
J. F. Longhean
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Letter of the Day: August 7
August 7, 1896
R. H. Cooper, Esq,
City Clerk,
Palatka, Florida
Dear Sir:
Your letter of August 5th inquiring in regard to an examination of the water used for drinking purposes, etc., at Palatka, is received.
We will endeavor to make the desired examination, and inform you of the result.
Please forward to the Army Medical Museum about a gallon of the water referred to. It had better be sent in a glass demijohn which has previously been thoroughly cleaned, rinsed with boiled water and then with alcohol, the latter being allowed to evaporate. The water should flow directly into the demijohn from the source of supply in order to avoid contamination from any substance whatever. The cork stopper should be charred in the flame. The sample should be sent at once by express in order that it may reach here as soon as possible.
Respectfully,
D.L. Huntington
Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army,
In charge of Museum and Library Division
Friday, August 6, 2010
Letter of the Day: August 6
Fort Custer, M.T. [Montana Territory]
Aug. 6th, 1880.
Major G. A. Otis,
Surgeon, U.S.A.
My dear Sir;
I have just received your “List of the Specimens in the Anatomical Section of the U.S. Army Medical Museum.” I notice on p. 118 that the Museum has only two crania of Crow Indians.
I think I can obtain a number of specimens of this tribe for you, and also one or two complete skeletons.
If you will send me, from time to time, similar catalogues you may publish, I will gladly supply any deficiencies in my power.
Besides the skeletons of mammals and birds sent you recently from Fort Shaw, I have already a number of species new to the collection, that I have obtained in this locality, but as I am constantly adding to them I will not forward them at present.
I am, Sir,
Very truly yours,
James C. Merrill
Capt. + Ass’t. Surg. U.S.A.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
More on Eakin's Gross Clinic
Deft Surgery for a Painting Under the Scalpel
By KAREN ROSENBERG
Published: July 29, 2010
An exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art shows Thomas Eakins’s “Gross Clinic,” an 1875 masterpiece that has recently been restored.
In the article, Rosenberg discusses the paintings history especially the initial public hanging of it:
The current show’s first gallery contains photographs and ephemera from the Centennial Exhibition, a world’s fair that included the first historical survey of American art. Much of this material is filler. (Do we really need to see the shareholders’ certificate or Eakins’s exhibitor’s pass?) More to the point are the interior shots of the exhibition sites, which show how “The Gross Clinic” made its debut.
The selection committee found the painting too visceral for the main art show, a stuffy, salon-style affair in Memorial Hall, but with help from Dr. Gross, Eakins was able to display it in a model Army-post hospital elsewhere on the fairgrounds. Photographs show “The Gross Clinic” prominently featured at the end of a long row of beds, framed by dark curtains.
Here's a photograph of that "model Army-post hospital" which featured exhibits on military medicine, and was partially curated by Dr. J.J. Woodward.
1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, PA, Army Medical Department Exhibit - 001 Hospital front view
1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, PA, Army Medical Department Exhibit - 005 Hospital ward 1 from southern end. [Note the beds with mosquito netting, the enlargements of photomicrographs on the side walls and especially The Gross Clinic painting by Thomas Eakins on the far wall.
Anatomy exhibit at National Gallery of Art
The Body Inside and Out: Anatomical Literature and Art Theory
Selections from the National Gallery of Art Library
July 24, 2010–January 23, 2011
Here's the info from their website and a link to the brochure:
The humanist movement of the Renaissance introduced new realms of possibility in the arts and the sciences, including the study of anatomy. Many artists witnessed or participated in dissections to gain a better understanding of the proportions and systems of the body. Artists and physicians also worked together and formed partnerships—Leonardo and Marcantonio della Torre, Michelangelo and Realdo Columbo, and perhaps most famously, Titian and Andreas Vesalius—where the artist's renderings of the anatomist's findings were reproduced and dispersed to a scattered audience through the relatively recent innovation of print.
This exhibition, featuring outstanding examples of anatomy-related material from the collection of rare books in the National Gallery of Art Library, offers a glimpse into the ways anatomical studies were made available to and used by artists from the 16th to the early 19th century. On view are detailed treatises on human proportion and beauty by artists and scholars including Albrecht Dürer and Juan de Arfe y Villafane; drawing and painting manuals by Leonardo, Jean Cousin, and others, which include chapters on proportion and anatomy; and adaptations of anatomical treatises tailored to the needs of working artists by Roger de Piles and Johann Daniel Preissler, among others.
Letter of the Day: August 5 (2 of 2) - malaria?
Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1642
Office of R.H. Cooper,
City Clerk.
Palatka, Florida, Aug 5, 1896
The Curator Army Medical Museum
Washington DC
Dear Sir
The City Council of the City of Palatka desires to as-certain whether you subject a sample of water to an analytical or microscopic examination which will determine whether the water is the cause of a considerable amount of malarial sickness which is prevailing in our City at the present time.
If this can be done please inform me of the cost and the amount of water it will be necessary to transmit. The water in question is that which is used for drinking and general purposes throughout the City.
Yours respectfully
RH Cooper
Museum lunchtime talk today
When: Thursday, August 5, 2010, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
What: Rehabilitation of Wounded Warriors is enhanced by state-of-the-art technology employed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Housed within the Military Advanced Training Center (MATC) is the Center for Performance and Clinical Research (CPCR). The CPCR consists of a Biomechanics Lab and a Virtual Environment Lab. The technology is used to provide objective information about how a patient walks, balances, and reacts. The team of care providers uses the data to design, modify, or assess rehabilitation programs.
Bring a lunch and listen to Barri L. Schnall discuss her experiences working with Wounded Warriors using these innovative technologies.
COST: FREE! Bring your lunch!
WHERE: Russell Auditorium, NMHM, Bldg. 54 on WRAMC.
Questions? Email nmhminfo@afip.osd.mil or (202) 782-2673.
Letter of the Day: August 5 (1 of 2)
Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 851
August 5, 1895
To the Surgeon General, U.S. Army,
Washington, D.C.
General:
I have the honor to inform you that the articles of equipment of the Sanitary Corps of the Spanish Army, presented to this office by the Spanish Government, have been received, thinking that you might wish to make a suitable acknowledgement either by letter or exchange.
The articles received are:
1 Ambulance Knapsack (Mochila de ambulancia.)
1 Ambulance Dressing Case (Bolsa de ambulancia.)
1 Field Litter (Camilla de Campana.)
1 Litter Bed (Camilla-litera.)
1 Chair for carrying wounded (Silla-sueca.)
The value of the outfit received, according to the Spanish catalogue, is 353.28 pesetas, or about $70.65.
Very respectfully,
J.S. Billings
Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army,
In charge of Army Medical Museum and Library.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Letter of the Day: August 4
Phila Aug 4th 1863
Dr. Brinton
Dear Sir
Enclosed please find statement of account against the Medical Museum, if we should received the amount at the present time, it would be a great benefit, as business is very dull and we are obliged to pay accounts as they become due. We shall take it as a favor if you will have the account put in train for being paid.
Yours truly
James W. Queen & Co