Letter of the Day: September 18

Department of the Interior,
Washington, September 18, 1886.

Dr. John S. Billings,
Surgeon General’s Office.

Sir:-

In conversation with the Public Printer this morning, I learned that he does not purpose [sic, propose] reopening the question of the rejection of the Bell photo-lithographs which were intended to accompany Part 2 of the Census report on Mortality and Vital Statistics. I therefore desire to have an expression of your views as to whether it would be better to issue Volume 12 at once, without illustrations, or to ask the Public Printer to call for proposals in accordance with your original recommendation. In the latter case, the illustrations, 21 in number, might accompany the diagrams belonging to the report, and in either event, the report may be put upon the press at once and made ready for immediate distribution.

I shall be glad if you will address any recommendation you see fit to make, to the Secretary of the Interior.

Very respectfully,

J.H. Wardle
Chief of Census Division

Answered Sept 18th/ 86

Letter of the Day: September 17 (2 of 2)

AEM/caw

 

17 September 1959

 

Colonel Robert S Henry

2210 Russell Road

Alexandria, Virginia

 

Dear Colonel Henry:

 

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology was born because of the Civil War, was a part of it, and is now a living symbol of the benefits that do occur in spite of the violence and misfortunes of war. The Institute will celebrate its hundredth anniversary during and concurrently with the Civil War Centennial.

 

Among our plans for the hundredth anniversary of the Institute is a history of its activities since its beginning in 1862. We have two vacancies which we would like to fill with the very best qualified persons available. Once vacancy is for a person qualified to do the actual writing. This person would be in the grade of a GS-14 and would be on par with a Doctor of Philosophy in History. The other vacancy is in the grade of GS-7 and is authorized for a person qualified as a research historian for screening the material on hand and furnishing it as needed to the writer.

 

Both of these jobs are permanent Civil Service positions but this would not prevent a person taking either of them for the duration of the job only.

 

The historian would be given full credit for authoring the publication. No advancement in grade is promised. The research historian would have every possibility of building that job into one of much higher grade as he or she becomes more familiar with the work.

 

Either job would offer the holder great possibilities for freelance writing and it is felt that sufficient and varied material is available to suggest the writing of more than one historical novel if a person were so inclined.

 

If you are at all interested or if you know of anyone, you would be doing me a very great favor if you would write me as soon as possible with full particulars.

 

Albert E Minns Jr

Colonel, MSC

Curator, Medical Museum

 

Letter of the Day: September 17 (1 of 2)

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 922

 

September 17 1895

 

To the Health Officer,

Washington, D.C.

 

Sir:

 

I have the honor to inform you that the inoculation of two rabbits from the spinal cord of a suspected rabid dog – received on the 23d ultimo – has resulted negatively. At this date both animals are entirely free from any symptoms of rabies.

 

Very respectfully,

James Carroll

In the absence of Dr. Walter Reed

Letter of the Day: September 16

FMT/AEM/caw

 

16 September 1959

 

MM

 

Miss Mabel E. Winslow

Editor

Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine

1776 D Street, N.W.

Washington 6, D.C.

 

Dear Miss Winslow:

 

During the Civil War, General William A. Hammond, Surgeon General of the Army, because of his great concern over what he believed was an excessive loss of life and limb from the type of wound encountered, directed all of his medical officers to forward the amputated bones to a central collecting agency for study. This central collecting point was to be known as the Army Medical Museum. Here was one of the first organized research programs of the military services and from this humble beginning, continuing to this day, has grown the now world renowned Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

 

The Institute will celebrate its hundredth anniversary during and concurrently with the Civil War Centennial. During its lifetime, in addition to the pathological and anatomical collections, many instruments and other items of great historical significance have come into the possession of  the Institute. Every effort is made that these be preserved and used to encourage youth to follow the footsteps of those great medical men who once used them.

 

While the Institute itself is located on the grounds of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Medical Museum, one of its four major departments, is located in the downtown area of Washington where it can better carry out its mission of service and interest to the public. It is here that the military services portray the developments in the field of medicine and the resultant benefits to all mankind. More than 300,000 visitors will pass through the Museum this year.

 

The Museum is now planning its exhibits for the hundredth anniversary of the Institute. Consequently, we are seeking items which will enable us to have the finest, most complete exhibits possible.

 

Enclosed is an article which would help us considerably in locating desired material. We would be most grateful if you were able to make space for its insertion in your Magazine.

 

Whatever you are able to do for us in this matter will be greatly appreciated.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Frank M. Townsend

Colonel, USAF, MC

The Director

 

1 Encl

Article

 

Coordination:

 

Roger H Fuller

Captain, MC, USN

Deputy Director

 

Albert E Minns Jr

Colonel, MSC

Curator, Medical Museum

--

 

AFIP SEEKS OLD INSTRUMENTS

 

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology is seeking military medical material to expand the many famous collections of historical items in its Medical Museum.

 

The Medical Museum is dedicated to the collection, preservation and display of such material. It is one of the four major departments of the Institute, a national Institution jointly sponsored by the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. More than 300,000 visitors will pass through its halls this year.

 

The Museum has one of the finest collections of microscopes in the world. These instruments are displayed so as to show the evolution of the microscope from its origins through the most recent developments in electron microscopy. Few microscopes have been added to this collection in recent years, and efforts are now being made to fill the gaps, particularly the years from 1920 to the present.

 

The Institute will celebrate its hundredth anniversary during and concurrently with the Civil War Centennial. Museum personnel are now planning the exhibits for this occasion. Through the long history of the Institute a great number of historical instruments have been assembled, but among this material is very little of Confederate Army origin. Such items particularly are being sought.

 

Although budgetary limitations preclude the purchase of such items it is believed that there are a great number of instruments or other items which the owners might wish to place in the Museum where they will be carefully preserved for future generations. Any such donation would be greatly appreciated and due credit given.

 

It is requested that persons having items they might wish to contribute write The Director, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington 25, D.C., relative to their acceptability and shipping instructions.

 

 

Letter of the Day: September 15

Medical Purveyor’s Office, Military Division of the Pacific,

San Francisco, Cal., Sept 15, 1869

 

Sir,

 

I have the honor to state that I have shipped for steamer via Isthmus 6 Cases off specimens for the Army Med’l Museum care of Genl. R.S. Satterlee Chief Med. Purveyor new York, mkd 2 to 6, Five (5) cases from Bvt. Col. J. T. Ghiselin U.S.A. Portland Oregon, + Case No. 1, a box of skulls of the aborigines of the Island of Hawaii obtained for me by Dr. Hutchinson Minister of the Interior for the Hawaiian Govt. I enclose herewith his letter relating to these specimens of skulls.

 

Very respy

Your Obt Servt

R. Murray

Med Purveyor

U.S.A.

Museum docent Sol Barr remembers Sol Pargament

I first met Sol Pargament in the 1960's when I was new in practice.

He was selling medical supplies. For a short period his wife substituted as a secretary in my office when my regular help were away.

He had a small medical supply firm and I occasionally bought from him.

One day he showed up at my office then on Randolph Road in Rockville. I had had a shower built into the lavatory so that I could jog in from my home in Bethesda, shower and change before seeing patients. He suggested that I use this shower as a storage area for charts.

In the 1990's my wife and I visited the medical museum. He had a very distinctive gravely voice and while we were stepping into the exhibit area I knew it had to be him giving a tour even before I saw him.

Because of him and Dr. Ed Beeman I heard about being a docent at this museum. So when I retired I volunteered to be a docent here.

About two years ago I saw him at one of the docent meetings. He told me that his wife had died. He was very proud of his family. Two of his grandchildren had become doctors. This was a little surprising to me because I thought we were about the same age and my grandchildren were still in elementary, middle, and high school. He talked about coming back as a docent.

He never did return and in retrospect it may have been because of illness.

He is another person I knew from earlier days who is now gone and more and more I feel like a survivor.

Dr. Barr

Letter of the Day: September 14

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 6989

 

Surgeon General’s Office,

U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library,

Corner 7^th and B Streets SW.,

Washington, September 14, 1903.

 

To the Surgeon General, U.S. Army.

 

Sir:

 

I have the honor to request authority to purchase for deposit in the Army Medical Museum:

 

1 head of viper greatly enlarged showing the fangs, poison glands and muscles, and demonstrating the mechanism of this apparatus. Cost ……..$24.00 to be paid for from the Museum appropriation.

 

Very respectfully,

 

C.L. Heizmann

Col. Asst. Surgeon General, U.S. A.

In charge of Museum & Library Division.

Sol Pargament, a long-time Museum volunteer, has died

For about a decade, Sol helped out in historical collections, identifying objects due to his long career as a medical and surgical equipment salesman. As a former salesman, Sol had an inexhaustible fund of corny jokes and stories too. He was a good man, a good friend and a real asset to the Museum. We hadn’t seen much of him since his health started failing, but he’ll be missed. – Mike Rhode

 

Sol Pargament on the far left, with other volunteers on a trip to the National Library of Medicine

Sol Pargament

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=sol-pargament&pid=145227787&fhid=2133

  |   Visit Guest Book

PARGAMENT SOL PARGAMENT On Thursday, September 9, 2010, SOL PARGAMENT, native Washingtonian, of Silver Spring, MD. Beloved husband of the late Florence B. Pargament; loving father of Jeffrey (Jacqueline) Pargament, Kenneth (Aileen) Pargament and Marcia (Glen) Goldmark; devoted brother of Miriam Terlitzky, and the late Albert Pargament, Robert Pargament and Florence Blank; cherished grandfather of Robert (Liz), Sherri (Robert), Ellen, Jonathan (Jessica), Matthew, and Benjamin; dear great-grandfather of Reid, Claire and Emma. Also survived by his companion, Jeanette Diamond; nieces, nephews and many friends. Funeral services will be held Sunday, September 12, 3 p.m. at Danzansky-Goldberg Memorial Chapels, Inc., 1170 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852, 301-340-1400. Interment to immediately follow at King David Memorial Gardens, Falls Church, VA. Family will be observing Shiva following interment through Tuesday evening at the residence of Marcia and Glen Goldmark. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy in Sol''s memory may be made to Hadassah. www.danzanskygoldberg.com

Published in The Washington Post from September 11 to September 12, 2010

 

Burns Archive post-mortem photos on display in NYC

Friend of the Medical Museum Dr. Stanley Burns has an exhibit of post-mortem photographs from his collection on display in New York City. Here’s the Times on it:

 

Now Showing | The Graceful Dead

By ANDREW BELONSKY

September 9, 2010

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/now-showing-the-graceful-dead/

Letter of the Day: September 13

Post Hospital

Fort Clark Texas

Sept. 13. 1883

 

To

Col. J.S. Billings

Surgeon US Army

Curator Army Medical Museum

Washington D.C.

 

Sir:

 

In reply to your communication of the 5^th Inst. I regret to say that no specimen was preserved in the case of Pvt. George W. Trump. Co. K 19 Infantry who died June 15^th 1885 of embolism of Right Middle Cerebral Artery.

 

The specimen removed in this case became, under examination, much broken down and torn (through softening of the brain structure), and was through to be of too little value to forward to the Army Medical Museum.

 

Very Respectfully,

Your Obt. Servt.

F.L. Town

Major and Surgeon US Army

Post Surgeon

Walter Reed born today

The Mutter Museum calendar, always an interesting item, notes that Walter Reed was born today in 1851.

 

Letter of the Day: September 12

Camp Letterman Hospital
Gettysburgh (sic) Pa, Sept. 12th 1863

Sir

Yours of the 11th is just received. As a general rule Medical Descriptive Lists have not been forwarded with patients sent to Baltimore and Philadelphia because, except those transferred by special order, nearly all those recently sent have been well or so nearly well that their Surgical histories could be completed. When cases terminate the histories are classified and compiled in a book ruled like the enclosed form. I was intending to forward the lists to you as soon as this was done; but you will save yourself a great deal of labor if you will wait until the compilation is done. You have no idea how difficult it has been to get even such poor histories as those I send to day. I have approved Dr. McArthur to attend to the compilation and have directed him to send the lists back unless they were tolerably satisfactory, in many cases this has been done several times before any thing of the least use could be obtained. Many of the Medical officers who have been relieved have left no records behind or records so imperfect as to be useless.

At the time your keg of whiskey was received there was no whiskey at the dispensary to I exchanged it for alcohol. We are now saving a considerable quantity of postmortem specimens, mostly injured bones and joins. Some cheap spirits for their preservation would be acceptable.

Except in very rare instances no capital operations are now performed.

It will be impossible for me to make a report and tabular statement of all the gunshot wounds for the month of July. On the 27th of May Dr. Letterman ordered that the monthly reports of the different corps hospitals should be made through the Medical Directors of the Corps to him. I suppose the reports for July were forwarded accordingly. At that time I had not sufficient clerical assistance to do my ordinary every day business, much less to consolidate the tabular statements.

The Corps registers have been copied and the names arranged alphabetically; except the registers of the 6th and 12th corps, none were complete, and that of the 1st Corps containing, according to Dr. Ward the Surg. in charge, 2200 names was taken to the [illegible], contrary to my orders, before it was copied.

As soon as the men are sufficiently recovered to need no further surgical treatment we send them off; the Union men to Philadelphia and the Confederates to Baltimore; very few, if any, will be able to serve in the field again.

Respectfully
Your obt. servt.
Henry James
Surg. U.S.A.

Surg J. H. Brinton U.S.A.

Letter of the Day: September 11

Certified list of articles contained in one package, turned over to the Post Quartermaster for shipment to the Surgeon General U.S.A.

No of packages and how marked
One package.
Marked:
Surgeon General U.S.A.
Washington, DC.
For Army Medical Museum

Contents
One kidney (human)
One bladder (“)

How packed
Air tight tin box enclosed in a wooden box

I certify that the above list is correct.

Henry S. Haskins
Actg Asst Surg. U.S.A.
Post Surgeon
Camp Halleck Nevada
September 11, 78

New World War 1 scrapbook donated to Archives

Here’s information on one of our latest acquisitions – a really interesting scrapbook from the Great War.

 

 

Guide # OHA 213.5 Leach Scrapbook

 

Album of photographs of World War I facial case reconstructions and other surgical injuries. Dr. Charles Leach Sr. was born July 2 1884, and got a BA in Chemistry and an MD from Stanford University. He interned at San Francisco General Hospital in 1910. He joined the Commission for Relief in Belgium in 1916, then the US Army Medical Corps in 1917. From 1919-1920, he worked for the American Relief Administration. In 1920-1921 he earned a MPH from Johns Hopkins and after that joined the Rockefeller Foundation. For the rest of his career, he worked in public health. Dr. Leach died in 1971.

 

 

 

 

Letter of the Day: September 10

Jarvis

U.S. Army General Hospital,

Late Steuart’s Mansion,

Baltimore, Md., Sept. 10^th, 1863

 

Sir:

 

I have the honor to enclose herewith the histories of six specimens, which have this day been sent by Adams + Cos Express Co. to the Surgeon Generals Office.

 

I am Sir,

Very Respy

Yr Obdt Servt

DeWitt Peters

Asst Surgn USA

 

Sugn J.K. Barnes

Surgeon Genl USA

Washington DC

Letter of the Day: September 9

United States National Museum

Under Direction of

The Smithsonian Institution

Washington Sept. 9. 1886

 

Dear Sir:

 

I venture to request that you will lend me, for a few days, the mounted skeleton of Logenorhynchus acutus [aka Atlantic white-sided dolphin] in the Army Medical Museum. I have a paper on the genus Logenorhynchus in preparation and am desirous of comparing an authentic European specimen of the species referred to with others from our own Atlantic coast in this museum.

 

If you find it possible to grant my request, I will arrange to send a wagon for the specimen.

 

Very respectfully

 

Frederick W. True.

Curator of Mammals

 

Dr. J.S. Billings, U.S.A. +c

Director, U.S. Army Med. Museum.

Washington

 

Answered by Dr. Billings in person Sept 11. 86.

 

Prof True sent for No 2489. Sect. Comp Anatomy Sept 11, 1886, + the specimen was delivered to the messenger.

Letter of the Day: September 8

The Hague, Holland

Sept. 8^th 1886

 

Dr. John S. Billings,

Surgeon US Army

Washington, D.C.

 

Dear Sir,

 

Your letter of June 19^th was duly received by me, but not sooner answered on account of your absence mentioned in it.

 

After due consideration, I think it better to renounce my possible appointment as a clerk of the Army Medical Museum, employed for special duty.

 

I am sorry the great uncertainty as to the time of my appointment, and the terms relating to it oblige me to take this decision.

 

Very respectfully

 

Dr. H. ten Kate

Smithsonian's physical anthropology staff in newspaper

 

Natural History Museum's Origins of Western Culture hall will close for a 3-year renovation

By Jacqueline Trescott
Friday, September 3, 2010; C01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090204957.html

 

Letter of the Day: September 7

Indianapolis General,

Sep. 7^th 1868.

Brvt Maj Genl. J.K. Barnes, U.S.A.

Surgeon General.

 

Sir,

 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a  circular, headed, “Memorandum for the information of Medical Officers.”

 

I have in my possession the skull of a New Mexico Indian, which I know nothing of the history of, except that it was brought direct from there by Mr James B. Dunlap – deceased - + given to me.

 

The skull is at your service. Please inform me how I shall send it, if you wish to have it in your collectin.

 

Your Obt Servt,

F.S. Newcomer,

A.A. Surg, U.S.A.

President McKinley's nurses

According to the NY Times, President McKinley was shot today by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1901. Here's a related picture from our collection.


The Hospital Corps Men who served as the male nurses of President McKinley until his death. Private Ernest Vollmeyer, Acting Hospital Steward Palmer A. Eliot, and Private John Hodgins. Photographed at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, NY, 1901. CP 2459