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.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Letter of the Day: February 9
War Department,
Surgeon General’s Office
U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library
Corner of 7th and B Streets SW
Washington
February 9, 1899.
COL. CHAS. SMART,
Deputy Surgeon General, U.S.A.
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
I have the honor to inform you that the bacteriological examination of 2 cans of roast beef (Wilson & Co. & Armour & Co.), which were opened in your presences in this Laboratory on the afternoon of January 30, shows that the contents of both were sterile. No growth has occurred on any of the plates made therefrom.
Very respectfully,
Walter Reed,
Major & Surgeon, U.S.A.
Curator.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Letter of the Day: February 8
War Department,
Office of the Surgeon General,
Army Medical Museum and Library,
Washington
February 8, 1906
Prof. Wm Gary Calkins,
Department of Biology, Columbia University,
New York City
Dear Doctor Calkins:
I am sending you, by mail, to-day, a specimen of Taenia nana as I promised. These birds are so scarce that I cannot send you more than one, as I have only about a half dozen in all. I do not recall whether I promised you anything else or not; if I did kindly let me know and I will see that you get it.
With kind regards, I am,
Yours very truly,
James Carroll
1st Lieut., Asst. Surgeon, U.S.A.
Curator, Army Medical Museum
Monday, February 7, 2011
U.S. Hospital Ship, the Ernestine Koranda
Verso of the photograph, includes signatures of what we presume to be her crew.
Ernestine Koranda’s personal papers and photographs can be found online at the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS).
The NMHM has quite a few examples of hospital ships in our collections. Here are a few of my favorites:
US Hospital Ship, the "D.J. January," was used on Ohio and Mississippi Rivers from 1862 - 65. Photograph of model at Army Medical Museum constructed for Centennial Exposition 1876 at Philadelphia.
Ham the chimp featured on blog
Journalist Henry Nicholls has written in telling us that he’s written about Ham the space chimp:
Years after I came to see Ham the chimp, I did some stuff with the material I collected to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight.
I am on this week’s Guardian Science podcast - http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/audio/2011/feb/07/science-weekly-podcast-ham-astrochimp-cern-lhc-green-porno
I’ve also written up things in more detail on my blog -
http://thewayofthepanda.blogspot.com/2011/01/cameroons-gagarin-celebrating-life-of.html
http://thewayofthepanda.blogspot.com/2011/02/cameroons-gagarin-afterlife-of-ham.html
Letter of the Day: February 7
War Department,
Surgeon General’s Office
U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library
Corner of 7th and B Streets SW
Washington
February 7, 1902
MESSRS EIMER & AMEND.
205-211 Third Ave.
New York, N.Y.
Gentlemen:
I herewith return to you, by express, an Oliver’s haemoglobinometer, purchased of you some years ago, but which has never been used. On opening it the capillary measuring pipette was found broken. Evidently on packing the case, it was found that the blood-cell E (see drawing of case on p.30 of “The Tintometer”) was too large for its assigned place, and was therefore stuck in with B, thus displacing the capillary pipette, which was packed over the candles with the needle and worsted, and broken on closing the case.
No measured blue cover glass for the blood-cell was in the case.
There were 3 riders in the case, all of 0.25. I think there should be one of 0.25 and one of 0.5.
A new rubber ball on the mixing pipette is also needed.
Please have the case and its contents carefully examined and properly and safely arranged and returned to this office as soon as possible.
Very respectfully,
Walter Reed
Major & Surgeon, U.S.A.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Letter of the Day: February 6
Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 09190
To 1st Lieut. James Carroll,
Assistant Surgeon, U.S.A.,
Washington, D.C., for remark
S. G. O.
Feb. 5, 1906
2d Indorsement [sic],
Surgeon General’s Office,
Army medical Museum
February 6, 1906
Respectfully returned to the SURGEON GENERAL, U.S. ARMY.
This matter was broached to me on January 2d at New Orleans, and I then expressed my willingness to come, provided it would be agreeable to the Surgeon General.
I am quite willing to prepare an address for the occasion, because an opportunity will be afforded to present the facts and arguments in a forcible manner where they will do the greatest good. The future safety of the United States from yellow fever depends largely upon the readiness of the physicians of Louisiana to recognize and declare the disease upon its first appearance among them. The importance of the subject to the Army and to the country at large is my reason for consenting to participate.
James Carroll
1st Lieut., Asst. Surgeon, U.S.A.
Curator.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Letter of the Day: February 5
Cox Le
Army Agents Chary xLondon
5.2.95
The Curator
Dear Sir
I desire to apply to you as I am engaged on a N. Zd [New Zealand] book for any printed information or plates regarding 2 dried N.Z Heads I learn you have.
My informant by a curator of a museum out there.
This information I seek [?] is noted as
Int Bureau Ethnology No 4. 1886 Smithsonian Lw.
Should I apply there
Besides New Zealand war[es?] I have had S. African[.] I would like to know if I gave a good exchange in Zulus Lc Y J might offer for 2nd N. Z of yours.
I must ask you to excuse me if I trouble you[?] I shd [should] be pleased with any notice of this
I am
Yrs Respectfully
H.G. Robley
Friday, February 4, 2011
Letter of the Day: February 4
Washington D.C. Feb 4th 1887
Lieutenant Col. J.S. Billings, Surg. U.S. Army.
Army Medical Museum, Washington, D.C.
Sir,
I respectfully apply for the privilege of being Caterer to the new Army Medical Museum Building.
In support of this application I beg leave to refer to Prof. G.B. Goode, Asst. Director U.S. Nat. Museum
I have for the last five years successfully conducted a Cafe at the Nat. Museum, which, was established under the authority of the Hon. Prof. S.F. Baird, Director of the institution, and is located at the left of east entrance of the Museum Building.
Very respectfully,
John Linden
Thursday, February 3, 2011
PR: Exhibition of NY's Civil War Soldiers in rare photographs
Merchant’s House Museum
29 East Fourth Street, NYC 10003 212-777-1089 Fax 212-777-1104 merchantshouse.org
Exhibition: New York’s Civil War Soldiers –
Photographs of Dr. R. B. Bontecou, Words of Walt Whitman
Thursday, April 14, through Monday, July 31, 2011
NEW YORK – February 3, 2011 – In April 2011, 150 years after the start of the American Civil War (1861-1865), the Merchant’s House Museum, in partnership with The Burns Archive and the release of Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography, by R.B. Bontecou, will present an exhibition of medical photographs of wounded New York soldiers by army surgeon and native New Yorker Dr. Reed B. Bontecou. The more-than 100 images of human ruination will be captioned with quotations from Walt Whitman’s 1882 memoir, Specimen Days, in which he recounts his own horrifying experience as a volunteer nurse. According to Whitman, “The real war will never get in the books.”
Bontecou’s graphic portraits of the wounded – on display for the first time since the 19th century, when they became national icons during the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia – make vivid the intensely human tragedy of the Civil War, a war fought on our own soil, citizen against citizen, and highlight sacrifices made by American soldiers and their families.
The exhibition will also feature historic photographs of New York regiments; New York provided more soldiers than any other state (nearly half a million) and sustained the greatest number of casualties, winning 382 Congressional Medals of Honor. An image of Dr. Mary Walker, the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor, will be on display. A Civil War surgical operating set, memorabilia of Dr. Bontecou, first-edition books on New York in the war, and rare newspapers will also be shown.
The Bontecou images are from the collection of Dr. Stanley B. Burns, The Burns Archive. Dr. Burns’s new book, Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography, by R.B. Bontecou, showcases Bontecou’s stirring photographs – which go beyond the mere presentation of their intended subject, the patient’s wound, to rival the work of portrait photographers like Matthew Brady.
About the Merchant’s House Museum
Celebrating Our 75th Year as Museum (1936-2011)
The Merchant's House Museum is New York City's only family home preserved intact — inside and out — from the mid-19th century. Home to a prosperous merchant-class family and their staff of four (mostly Irish) servants for almost 100 years, it is complete with the family's original furnishings and personal possessions, offering a rare and intimate glimpse of domestic life from 1835-1865.
“Not so much a museum as a raw slice of history” AVENUE Magazine
On the web: www.merchantshouse.org
About the Burns Archive
In addition to being an internationally distinguished author, curator, historian, collector, publisher, and archivist, Dr. Stanley B. Burns, MD, FACS, is a New York City ophthalmologist and Clinical Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center. In 1975 he began collecting historic photography. In 1977 he founded The Burns Archive to share his discoveries and began his writing and publishing career. Dr. Burns’ collection of vintage photographs (1840-1950) has been generally recognized as the most important private comprehensive collection of early photography. It has been showcased in numerous national media venues worldwide. Artists, researchers and historians can access the one million+ photographs. The images have been the source of numerous Hollywood feature films, documentaries and museum exhibitions. Dr. Burns has authored forty photo-historical texts and curated more than fifty photographic exhibitions. He has been a founding donor of photography collections, including the J.P. Getty Museum and The Bronx Museum of the Arts. He spends his time lecturing, creating exhibits, and writing books on underappreciated areas of history and photography.
On the web: www.theburnsarchive.blogspot.com
# # #
Eva Ulz
Education & Communications Manager
Merchant's House Museum
29 East Fourth Street, NYC 10003
tel: 212-777-1089 x303 fax: 212-777-1104
Letter of the Day: February 3
Subject: Peruvian Skulls.
War Department
Surgeon General's Office,
U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library,
Corner of 7th and B Streets S.W.,
Washington, D.C. February 3, 1896
To the
Surgeon General, U.S. Army,
Washington, D.C.
General:
I have the honor to request authority to have prepared for this Museum nineteen facsimiles of ancient Peruvian skulls showing trephining, at a cost of $5.00 each, total of $95.00, to be paid for from the Museum appropriation.
Very respectfully,
D.L. Huntington
Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army,
In charge of Museum and Library Division
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
The Process Exhibit Design, Steps 1-4
from that comes a 2 d drawing. then the first rendering is after setting the scene.
here is the first scene rendering of the Museum Lobby, NMHM, Washington DC 2011.
Rendered using cinema 4-d 11.5
at this time Im also working on the design concept, but it helps to have accurate to scale renderings
Next adding props
more staging,
Cheers!, Navjeet Singh, Exhibits Designer
Australian Newcastle Medical Museum featured in newspaper
Spine-tingling artefacts
February 2, 2011
http://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/spinetingling-artefacts-20110201-1abkk.html
Greco-Roman medicine featured in newspaper
Ship wreck reveals ancient secrets of medicine
By Adrian Higgins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 1, 2011; E06 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/01/AR2011020100169.html
Letter of the Day: February 2 (Jackson collection)
Feb. 2nd 1862
Capt Wilson, Q.M.
Sir:
I examined the Bread supplied the hospital of the 11th P.V. and find it sour and imperfectly baked – unfit for well soldiers, much more so for sick ones.
I have the honor etc etc
RMS Jackson
Surgeon.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Return of Donna White
Letter of the Day: February 1
Lawrenceville, Tioga Co., Pa., Feb 1st, 1884
To the Surgeon General of the US Army
Dear Sir.
Yesterday I amputated an Arm for Mathias L. Holbert, late a private in the 124th N. York Vol.- He received a gun shot would of the right Elbow Joint, in the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 3 1863. He was taken to Carver US. Genl Hospital in Washington, the under Charge of Surg. O.A. Judson US. Vol. The Elbow Joint was Re-Sected + the soldier carried the limb in a sling for 3 years before it entirely healed up. He has never seen the time since he was wounded that the limb did not give him Trouble. Several times his life has been endangered from the high degree of inflammatory action excited. For the past two months he has suffered greatly with it, + two weeks ago I opened into the artificial joint + evacuated more than a pint of filthy pus, blood + serum. It became imperative to remove the arm in the interest of life, as well as comfort.
The history of his case is among the records probably on file in your office- And I thought you would direct that the bones of the arm showing the result of the process of repair after resection, be sent to the Army Medical Museum for preservation.
If you disired [sic] me to prepared [?] the Specimen and forward to your office at government expense, please notify me at once and I will do so-
Yours Very Respectfully
L. Darling, Jr., M.D.
P.S.
Mr. Holbert is a poor man and he disires [sic] me to enquire of you if the government he served faithfully, and for which he has suffered so long, would not pay the expense of his sickness and surgical bills. It seems to me it would be only Justice to him, as he was only one of many victims of Conservative [?] Surgery, that is its results has proven so unsatisfactory.
Monday, January 31, 2011
The Medical Heritage Library, an online resource
The Medical Heritage Library (MHL) is a digital curation collaborative among some of the world's leading medical libraries. The MHL promotes free and open access to quality historical resources in medicine. Our goal is to provide the means by which readers and scholars across a multitude of disciplines can examine the interrelated nature of medicine and society, both to inform contemporary medicine and strengthen understanding of the world in which we live.
The Museum's got ~175 items at the Internet Archive (search for otishistoricalarchives) and when we figure out how to link them, we'll add them to this digital resource. Some of ours are unique, like the Pleasants Photograph Album, which is full of pictures of wounded soldiers who made the album as a 'thank you' for being tutored in reading.
Thai medical museum article
Killing time in Bangkok
- Michelle Rowe
- From: The Australian
- January 29, 2011
- http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/killing-time-in-bangkok/story-e6frg8rf-1225994742311
Letter of the Day: January 31
January 31st, 1868
Doctor:
Your letter of January 14th concerning Specimens for the Army Medical Museum, is recieved [sic]; in reply I would respectfully state, that I have a Bow and Arrow of the Sioux and one of the Chippewas which I will shortly forward to the Museum. These I consider typical weapons of the respective tribes. I would also have procured Knives and Tomahawks but those which I have seen here have been of such various materials and patterns, that they would be almost valueless as specimen weapons.
I have made arrangements to procure for the Anatomical section of the museum, the skeletons of such of the smaller feral animals as can be obtained in this section of country, and hope when the trappers return from their winter's hunt, to be able to report my success, and forward the specimens procured.
Specimens of Indian Crania can not be obtained here. During the past two years but one death has occurred in the vicinity among the aboriginal inhabitants which has come to my knowledge- That of a Chippewa "half-breed" who was killed by the Sioux Indians on Elm River about 50 miles from here- his body was removed to Pembina and buried in the Catholic Cemetery there. Crania of "half breeds" Sioux and Chippewa I should imagine would present some interesting features for study and I will use every legitimate endeavor to procure specimens of these, for the museum.
In conclusion Doctor I assure you, of my interest in the museum; and of my hearty cooperation in carrying out its purposes, to any extent in my power.
Very Respectfully
You Obedient Servant
W.H. Gardner
Asst. Surgeon and Bvt. Major USA
[To]
Bvt Sr Col George A Otis
Asst Surgeon U.S. Army
Through
Medical Director
Department of Dakota
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Letter of the Day: January 30
To the Chief of the Medical Department, U.S.A.
Washington
D.C.
Dear Sir,
Believing that you take a deep interest in the advancement of Science in the Medical Branch, I take the liberty to address a few lines to you, with the expectation that through your kindness you will give me all the assistance to succeed in carrying out my object. I am requested by one of the most eminent Professors of Anatomy of Europe. Professor Dr. Hyrdel of Vienna, an old acquaintance of mine and whose name may be familiar to you, to procure for him a complete skull of an Indian with the name of the tribe attached to it. Said Professor has a Collection of some five thousand skulls, but none of an Indian. Either a prepared one or unprepared would be acceptable , and I am willing to pay the expense. If you should have a chance to get a prepared skull and should not cause you to much trouble, you may send one directly to Dr. Hyrdel at Vienna (Austria) and if not an unprepared one I suppose might be got from the Plains through your solicitations and in that case have it addressed to me and send to Chicago. Hoping that you will excuse me for causing you so much trouble, and awaiting your kind answer to this, I remain
most respectfully yours
J. Ulrich, M.D.
No 467 North Wells Sre.[?]