Pictures of average Civil War soldiers

SCDV 192 Ulmur, David, CO. M 4th PA Cavalry, battle of Dinwiddie Court House


The Washington Post is reporting an excellent donation of 700 pictures of average Civil War soldiers to the Library of Congress.

Va. collector donates Civil War photographs to Library of Congress
By Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 2, 2010

The Medical Museum of course took or collected thousands of these types of pictures during the war, excepting the showing of a wound, of course. You can see some on our Flickr site. We also have a donated album - Pleasants Photograph Album (1865) - that we scanned and put online recently. Here's the description of it:

Photograph album of Frances Pleasants, who taught wounded soldiers at the Army Hospital in Germantown, PA during the Civil War. Presented to her by her patients, it contains photographs of them as well as other Civil War images. Includes albumen cartes-de-visite, tintypes, and newspaper clippings. Note: where image numbers are missing in the sequence, those places in the album are empty and the pages were not digitized.

Letter of the Day: October 3

Pittsburgh, October 3d, 1863.

Sir:

We were so unfortunate, on Friday Morning, October 2d, 1863, as to meet with the disaster of having our Factory burned. Our furnace is still perfect, and our moulds uninjured, to any great extent. Our stock was entirely consumed, and some of our books destroyed, among them our order book.

Our suspension of business will be but temporary, as we hope to be able to resume operations in the course of three or four weeks. So soon as we are in operation, we will be glad to receive a continuance of your patronage, so liberally extended to us heretofore.

Yours, respectfully,

T.A. EVANS & CO.

Masterden Fluid Glass Works

NY Times on the problem of cell phone tours

I thought this was an interesting article -

From Picassos to Sarcophagi, Guided by Phone Apps
By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
October 2, 2010

Appalling human experimentation done by US in early days of antibiotics

I've been on the AFIP's Institutional Review Board for about 15 years now, and usually it's just people wanting to study archived tissue - but then every once in a while you're reminded why you have to have someone looking over people's shoulders. This is an extraordinarily stupid study as well - they couldn't have gone to VD clinics in the US and set up a controlled study with some getting placebos? Of course they could have. However, note it wasn't just the US government - the Post article says the Guatemalan government was involved as well.

U.S. Apologizes for Syphilis Tests in Guatemala
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
October 2, 2010

U.S. apologizes for newly revealed syphilis experiments done in Guatemala
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 2, 2010

Letter of the Day: October 2

Be sure to read the reprint ...

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1737

The Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement.
W.J. Hanna, M.D., Sec’y and Treas.

#426 ½ J. St. Sacramento, Cal. October 2, 1896.

My Dear Doctor:

I enclose a reprint of a case of “Heart Injury” which came under my observation. Would you kindly let me know whether you have any similar cases reported in your Museum or any literature on this subject. With kind regards and hoping to hear from you at your earliest convenience I remain

Yours truly
W.J. Hanna

To.
J.M. Toner M.D.
U.S. Army Medical Museum
Washington, D.C.

Museum transfers from AFIP

Today the Museum officially transfers from the AFIP to the Army's Medical Research and Materiel Command although we're detailed back to AFIP for the moment. The Army Institute of Pathology spun out of the Museum on June 7 1946, and the Museum was placed under it. On February 15, 1950, the triservice Armed Forces Institute of Pathology was created. AFIP was closed by BRAC in 2005 and will finally close in 2011.

Letter of the Day: October 1

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 199

War Department,
Surgeon General’s Office,
U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library,
Corner 7th and B Streets, S.W.,
Washington, D.C., October 1, 1894,

Dr. A. Clifford Mercer,
324 Montgomery St.,
Syracuse, N.Y.

Dear Sir:

I have just returned from Europe and find your note of September 23rd on my table, for which I am much obliged.

I know Mr. Crisp’s collection very well, and have received much valuable aid from Mr. Mayall, the gentleman who aided him largely in making that collection. I wish it were possible to obtain it for the Army Medical Museum, to which it would be a splendid addition. But it is out of the question to think of purchasing it, as your annual appropriation for all purposes is only $5000. At all events, however, it can do no harm to make some inquiries about the matter, and I will at once proceed to do this through some friends in London.

Again thanking you for your note, I remain,
Yours very sincerely,
(Sgd) John S. Billings
Lt. Colonel and Deputy Surgeon General, U.S.A.

Letter of the Day: September 30

Wash. D.C. Sept 30 80

Hon. Alexander Ramsey

Sec of War

 

Dear Sir

 

I have the honor herewith most respectfully to request that I may be transferred from my present position in the Record and Pension Division of the Surgeon General’s Office to some other employment under the War Department for the reason that I am afflicted with a very serious trouble in my eyes; which has now become so aggravated by the gas light under which I have to work as to threaten blindness.

 

Dr. Loring the occulist who has for some time been treating my eyes assures me that this work by gas light will eventually cause the loss of sight.

 

I forward with this his statement of the matter, and therefore request that you will have the kindness to cause my transfer to someplace where I will not have the difficulty of the gas light, or if possible to some position as messenger or the like. I was appointed upon the recommendation of the Maryland delegation + also f Mr. Pachico of Cal. Being gazette I believe to that state.

 

Very Respectfully,

Your Obt. Servant

Alfred de Ronceray

Letter of the Day: September 29

[There were so many bird collectors in the Army that there’s a book about them – Ornithologists of the United States Army Medical Corps by Hume]

 

Madisonville, Hamilton Co. Ohio

Sept. 29^th 1879

 

Dear Sir

 

I send you today, per Express (M+C. care of Adams) as directed, a box containing the following species of birds in the flesh, for the Army Medical Museum; (for skeletons).

 

Viz.-

Deudioeca castanea

Deudoieca blackburniae

Turdus swainsoni

Pyranga aestiva

Passerella iliaca

Aegialitis vociferous

 

Hoping that they may reach you in good order, I have the honor to be

Very respectfully yours

Frank W. Langdon

 

C.H. Crane

Asst. Surgeon General, U.S.A.

 

--

Received at A.M.M. Oct. 2, 1879, + turned over to Dr. Woodward, in charge of the Sec. of Comparative Anatomy.  Copy of this letter furnished Dr. Schafhirt Oct. 7 1879, by order of Mr. Myers.

Rules of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office

Rules of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office , printed on May 16, 1872 from OHA 323.

SGO Centennial 1876 calendar

Party like it’s 1876!

SGO Circular 2 (1867)

The Army Medical Museum begins collecting animal specimens, Indian culture and remains, and poisonous insects and reptiles, two years after the Civil War ends, and five years after the Museum’s founding.

 

Letter of the Day: September 28

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 193

 

Schering & Glatz,

Importers of

Drugs & Chemicals

No. 55 Maiden Lane.

New York, September 28, 1894

 

Dr. Walter Reed,

Major & Surgeon U.S. Army

Curator U.S. Army Medical Museum,

Washington, D.C.

 

Dear Doctor:-

 

We beg to own receipt of your valued favor of the 26^th. Inst., contents of which are noted with thanks.-

 

We now enclose invoice for 2 x 5 Gramme Vials DIPTHERIA ANTITOXINE SOLUTION for Immunization, which we forwarded by mail today and trust the same will reach you in good condition. We regret to say that we will probably not be able to furnish the Concentrated Solution until next November, while our stock of the Immunization Fluid is almost exhausted and we will likely be out of stock for a month or two.

 

We presume your article “The Germicidal Value of Trikresol” has not yet been published in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, as we have not yet received the separate copy which you were kind enough to promise us in your letter of July 23d.

 

Very truly yours,

 

Schering & Glatz

 

Enclosure: Invoice.

 

"Save the Date: Museum Program on Wounded Warrior Care at the MATC, 9/30, noon!"

SAVE THE DATE---Wounded Warrior Care at Walter Reed LUNCHTIME PROGRAM AT THE MEDICAL MUSEUM

What: Join physical therapists from Walter Reed’s Military Advanced Training Center for a panel discussion about their experiences with Wounded Warrior care and amputee rehabilitation. This program is being held in conjunction with “Wounded in Action: An Art Exhibition of Orthopaedic Advancements,” presented by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.   When: Thursday, September 30, 2010, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. (Bring your lunch!)   Where: Russell Auditorium, NMHM in Bldg. 54, WRAMC   Questions? Call (202) 782-2673

 

 

 

Letter of the Day: September 27

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 180

 

War Department,

Surgeon General’s Office,

U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library,

Corner 7^th and B Streets S.W.,

Washington, D.C., September 27, 1894

 

To the Surgeon General, U.S. Army,

Washington, D.C.

 

General:

 

I have the honor to state that the following articles are required for immediate use at the Army Medical Museum, and would request authority to buy them as emergency purchases to be paid for from the Museum appropriation:

 

6 lbs. Acid, carbolic, pure, crystals, Estimated cost, 6.00

8 Oz. Celloidin, Schering’s,                        “              “       8.00

3 Small Files, for glass,                                “              “         .60

½ Ream Filtering Paper, imported        “              “      10.00

1 Gas Stove, 10”, with ring burner,      “               “        5.50

30 Yards Black Rubber Tubing,               “               “      18.00

2 lbs. Metallic Zinc, in sticks,                   “               “        1.50

1 Dozen Pencils, blue, for writing on glass,       “         2.00

1 Dozen Pinchcocks, for rubber tubing,              “         3.00

                                                                    Total             “       54.60

 

Very respectfully,

Walter Reed,

Major and Surgeon, U.S. Army,

Curator Army Medical Museum.

Letter of the Day: September 26

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 932

Geo. G. Rambaud,
Superintendent
New York Biological and Vaccinal Institute.
Laboratory of Bovine Vaccine and of Biological Products.
(Pasteur Institute Building.)
New York, September 26, 1895

Dr. Walter Reed,
Washington, D.C.

Dear Doctor:

Dr. Gibier has transmitted to us your favor of the 25th in which you ask for information as to the use of our Tetanus Antitoxin.

In reply we beg to say that we are at present out of the directions for which you ask, but we will have some in a short time, and will be pleased to send you same.

Hoping this delay will not inconvenience you, we remain,

Yours respectfully,
New York Biological and Vaccinal Institute.
Per GGR

Letter of the Day: September 25

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 932

September 25, 1895

Dr. Paul Gibier,
Director Pasteur Institute,
1—7 W. 97th St.,
New York.

Dear Sir:

Will you favor me with your circular describing the dose necessary for administration on and the method of administration of your tetanus antitoxine. I have recently received a small quantity from the Post Surgeon at Plattsburg Barracks, which was left over in a case of lockjaw at that Post, and desire to have some definite information as to its dose, etc., should I be called upon to forward the antitoxine to another military post.

Please favor me with a prompt reply.

Very truly yours,
Walter Reed
Surgeon, U.S. Army,
Curator.

Last day for the Museum's scanning contract

Today is the last day for the scanning contract that we were able to be on as part of the AFIP. As the dissolution of AFIP accelerates, the contract has also shrunken, and the possible last year of it is being used to scan as many accession record microfilms as possible. We didn’t quite finish all the parts of our projects, but we did a lot of work.

 

The work was done by a company that moved along from being Information Management Corporation, to National Interest Security Company, to currently being a division of IBM. Scores of people worked on this project, at AFIP and the Museum, in scanning labs in West Virginia, and in our warehouses in Maryland. I won’t try to list them because over almost a decade, I know I’d leave some important ones out. The project was complex and all of the images had to be catalogued before being scanned, because you need a computer record of the original to hook the scan up to. You can see some of the products on this blog, and thousands of them on the Flickr site. The Walter Reed history book used images catalogued and scanned for this, and the upcoming AFIP history will too.

 

This contract really did a lot for us over the years. Over 1.25 million scans of museum documents are now available electronically. It’s going to be a great resource.

 

Letter of the Day: September 24

Post Hospital,

Morris Island S.C.

Sept. 24, 1863

 

Dear Doctor:

 

I arrived here safely a week after I left W-.  Have a nice time of it here, between bomb shells + sea shells – the latter having the greater attraction.

 

I have the honor performing the duties of Medical Inspector of the Camp on the Island + have nothing more to do, except prescribe for the sick in Genl. Gilmore’s Band; so you see I have very little hard labor to perform. I am present, however, to assist Dr. Gross in his amputations.

 

Now about specimens – what am I to do for you? I can furnish any number of recent ones, both flesh and bone wounds, but will they be of any value to you? This is a God-forsaken place to get anything to put up preparations, and unless they are attended to at once, they become so offensive that we have to dispose of them. The wounds are all produced by Shell that we have to care for now + are therefore terrible. We had six cases last night from Ft. Gregg wounded by Moultrie guns. Three of them died. We average almost five cases of shell wounds daily from our men at work on the Forts + entrenchments.

 

We can give you no pathological specimens, for we ship all the cases that are likely to recover either to Beaufort or to Hilton Head Hospitals. I have a very fine specimen of a shell wound of the Cranium, which I have ready for you with the full history thereof.

 

Please let me know your desires and I shall do all for you I can. I have plenty of time and will be glad to do anything to further the object you have undertaken to accomplish. I am suffering from the cold this morning – it is quite chilly.

 

My pious regards to Dr. Dunston – say to him I have the Crab – a Side Wheeled” one – Tom Turtle I have not caught yet.

 

I will be glad to hear from you soon.

 

Truly yours [illegible]

H.K. Neff

 

To

Surgeon J. H. Brinton

Washington

 

Direct to Post Hospital Morris Island S.C.