Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Hundreds of the brains he autopsied are preserved to this day at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. But Freeman approached the end of ...

Monday, March 7, 2016

New book on museums and human remains out

How Many Human Skeletons Are in US Museums?

History News Network (HNN)
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161946

In 1879, when a letter arrived at the Army Medical Museum attached to a box containing a human skull, curators likely read with great interest the ...

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

The Grog, A Journal of Navy Medical History and Culture--Issue 44

It is with great pleasure that we offer you the latest ration of The Grog, A Journal of Navy Medical History and Culture. In this edition we look back at the Navy's fight against tuberculosis in the decades before antibiotics. Partly inspired by the work of a tubercular physician in the Adirondacks and a new method of treatment he popularized, in 1906 the Navy established a
special hospital in a landlocked state that served only tubercular Sailors and Marines. In our cover story we revisit this vanguard institution and look at the innovative methods for treating the so-called "incurables." We follow this story with an eclectic line-up of articles including our latest installment of our "year in review" series, as well as first-hand accounts of independent hospital corps duty in the South Pole and the curious, but true tale of how a Navy physician used a sigmoidoscope to save (USS) America.

As always, we hope you enjoy this tour of the high seas of Navy Medicine's past!

The Grog is accessible through the link below. PDF versions are available upon request. Those currently on the PDF Mailing list will receive a separate e-mail.

http://issuu.com/thegrogration/docs/the_grog__issue_44

Very Respectfully,

André B. Sobocinski
Historian
Communications Directorate (M09B7)
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED)
Tel: (703) 681-2473
Email: andre.b.sobocinski.civ@mail.mil

Got Navy Medical History?
http://www.med.navy.mil/bumed/nmhistory/

Friday, February 19, 2016

New Orleans' Pharmacy Museum profiled

Opium-soaked tampons, voodoo elixirs and leeches: welcome to New Orleans' Pharmacy Museum

Located in the townhouse of the US's first licensed pharmacist, this lively, macabre, cringe-inducing museum provides a refreshing re-contextualization of its many artifacts and an unflinching encounter with our mortality

Susan Harlan

Friday 16 January 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/jan/16/new-orleans-pharmacy-museum-opium-soaked-tampons-voodoo-elixirs

Coyle collection uploaded to Medical Heritage Library

The collection consists of a mug, photographs, and papers from Zelma "Suzie" Coyle, who served as a nurse on the USS Haven (AH-12) hospital ship during the Korean War.

Scanned and online here are instructions to medical officers upon joining the Haven, her letters home to her mother and her photographs.

72 items are available at this link - https://archive.org/details/SCN0024

Unfortunately the link was autogenerated, so doesn't make much sense in as a human term.

Only part of the collection was digitized and uploaded. Coyle's service record and her annotated copy of the Haven's cruise book have not been scanned. The originals of her letters remain with her family and BUMED was provided with digital copies.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

NMHM archivist Boyle featured on NLM blog

In the Belly of the Beast: A History of Alternative Medicine at the NIH

by Circulating Now

Dr. Eric Boyle spoke today at the National Library of Medicine on "In the Belly of the Beast: A History of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health." Dr. Boyle is Chief Archivist at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Circulating Now interviewed him about his work.

http://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2016/02/18/in-the-belly-of-the-beast-a-history-of-alternative-medicine-at-nih/

Thursday, January 28, 2016

POSTPONED: NLM History of Medicine Lecture

Due to the extensive difficulties in travel following the record-breaking snow-fall in the Washington, DC area, the NLM History of Medicine lecture by Eric Boyle, originally scheduled for Thursday, January 28, has been postponed.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Former NMHM museum curator leads ID lab

After slow start, Offutt lab is now bustling in effort to ID remains of Pearl Harbor victims

Omaha World-Herald

[Franklin Damman] left in 2007 to become curator of anatomical collections at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. He missed the work of ...

http://www.omaha.com/news/military/after-slow-start-offutt-lab-is-now-bustling-in-effort/article_932c36a6-0bf6-5eee-81bf-d6c58146f2d0.html

Thursday, January 21, 2016

NLM History of Medicine Lecture

Dear Colleagues,

You are cordially invited to the next NLM History of Medicine lecture, to be held on Thursday, January 28, from 2 pm to 3pm in the NLM Lister Hill Auditorium, Building 38A, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD. Eric W. Boyle, PhD, Chief Archivist of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Silver Spring, MD, will speak on "In the Belly of the Beast: A History of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health."

The story begins in earnest in 1991, when a Senate Appropriations Committee responsible for the budget of the National Institutes of Health reported that it was not satisfied that the mainstream medical community had fully explored the potential of unconventional medical practices. In response, Congress mandated the creation of an office to investigate, evaluate, and validate unconventional health care systems and practices. The original Office for the Study of Unconventional Medical Practices, which eventually became the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) sought to obtain and disseminate knowledge about alternative medicine to practitioners and the public. But as one advocate of alternative medicine noted at a strategic planning session in September 2009, the challenges of studying complementary and alternative medicine at the NIH might be likened to working "in the belly of the beast." While skeptics have doubted the feasibility of this kind of research, practitioner-advocates have persistently warned about the dangers of alternative medicine being swallowed whole by the research behemoth. The central questions in this talk are how did the NIH meet its multifaceted mandate, and how did it tackle the challenges of investigating the field while addressing the priorities and demands of its harshest critics and most sympathetic supporters?

This presentation is co-sponsored by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, and the Office of NIH History.

All are welcome.

Sign language interpretation is provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate may contact Stephen Greenberg at 301-435-4995, e-mail greenbes@mail.nih.gov, or the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).

Due to current security measures at NIH, off-campus visitors are advised to consult the NLM Visitors and Security website:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/visitor.html

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Mercy Street and Civil War medicine

Snyder: Have 'Mercy' on us all

New PBS drama goes inside Civil War hospital

COMMENTARY BY ELIZABETH SNYDER

http://www.kenoshanews.com/get_out/snyder_have_mercy_on_us_all_486160707.php

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Gimesh medical museum article

http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/obscure-fayetteville-museum-is-trove-of-medical-relics/article_35d5a6ec-125f-516d-b54f-51ae0f74fbbb.html

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

St. Elizabeth lantern slides from NMHM and NARA

St. Elizabeths Stories: Turning the Lights Back On With Long-Forgotten Images

by Pablo Maurer
Oct 28, 2015
http://dcist.com/2015/10/st_elizabeths_stories_turning_the_l.php#photo-1

Friday, October 16, 2015

NMHM's former location becomes lede to New Yorker story

Black Wounds Matter

The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/black-wounds-matter

... in Washington, D.C., which housed the small but remarkable National Museum of Health and Medicine. The musty place hosted a steady rotation of ...

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Barts Pathology Museum article

24 September 2015 By: Londonist

Body Snatchers And Abnormalities In Jars: A History Of Barts Pathology Museum

http://londonist.com/2015/09/barts

Friday, August 21, 2015

NMHM to move under Defense Health Agency

This largely restores the status quo of pre-BRAC when the Museum reported through the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology to the Under Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs.

3 US Organizations Set To Join Defense Health Agency

RTT News

NMHM was founded as the Army Medical Museum in 1862 and is home to a National Historic Landmark collection of more than 25 million objects.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Robert Osborn-illustrated booklet online

The Navy's BUMED's Office of Medical History has put its 4000th item online at the Medical Heritage Library. It's Vertigo Sense, illustrated by cartoonist Robert Osborn.

Read it at https://archive.org/details/VertigoSense

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Lincoln conspirators skull's reburial, 20 years ago

The exhumed skull of a would-be assassin, and its long journey home

Washington Post

On May 3, 1898, the Army Medical Museum gave its collections of 2,206 skulls to the Smithsonian, saying they belonged more to the study of ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-exhumed-skull-of-a-would-be-assassin-and-its-long-journey-home/2015/07/03/cd2e7bd0-1ff2-11e5-84d5-eb37ee8eaa61_story.html

Thursday, June 25, 2015

National Library of Medicine historian Michael Sappol on WWII animation

The Inside Story

Circulating Now on June 25, 2015

By Michael Sappol

Inside Out, Pixar's latest hit animated feature, is mainly set on the inside of a young girl's brain. Riley, an eleven-year-old, is operated by a committee of characters, each representing an emotion, who collectively try to deal with her troubles at school and home. It seems like a very contemporary way to depict consciousness, and critical reaction from psychologists and neuroscientists has been largely favorable.

But, strangely, the film echoes an older and quite obscure piece of animated cartooning: a 1944 movie made during wartime for the U.S. Coast Guard, The Inside Story. That film, now preserved in the historical audiovisual collection of the National Library of Medicine, deals with the typical emotional problems suffered by men entering the military service and argues that psychotherapeutic approaches may help.

Continued at http://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2015/06/25/the-inside-story/

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Civil War medicine by National Library of Medicine historians

Six Ways the Civil War Changed American Medicine

150 years ago, the historic conflict forced doctors to get creative and to reframe the way they thought about medicine

A ward in Carver Hospital in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War. One key innovation during this period was the division of hospitals into wards based on disease. (U.S. National Archives)

By Helen Thompson

smithsonian.com
June 17, 2015
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/six-ways-civil-war-changed-american-medicine-180955626/?no-ist

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Buffalo medical museum featured on tv

Fascinating, strange collection to discover at UB's Medical Museum

Mike Randall

Jun 1, 2015
http://www.wkbw.com/news/a-fascinating-strange-collection-to-be-discovered-at-ubs-medical-museum

Who are we?

Mike Rhode was the chief archivist of the Museum from 1989-2011, and is the founder of this blog. I maintain an interest in the course of the museum, and will be posting relevant information.

The Army Medical Museum was founded in 1862 during the American Civil War. After World War II, a parent-child relationship was inverted and the Museum became part of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Since then, the Museum has moved around Washington, stopping for years in Ford's Theatre, and on the National Mall where the building it shared with the National Library of Medicine once stood, until it was demolished in 1968 for the Hirshhorn Museum. For 35 years it was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and now is in Silver Spring, MD.

So what about that blog name?

It's historical. I found it in a quote from one of the former curators. World War II confirmed the Army Medical Museum's primary role in pathology consultation. James Ash, the curator during the war and a pathologist, noted, "Shortly after the last war, more concerted efforts were instituted to concentrate in the Army Medical Museum the significant pathologic material occurring in Army installations." He closed with the complaint, "We still suffer under the connotation museum, an institution still thought of by many as a repository for bottled monsters and medical curiosities. To be sure, we have such specimens. As is required by law, we maintain an exhibit open to the public, but in war time, at least, the museum per se is the least of our functions, and we like to be thought of as the Army Institute of Pathology, a designation recently authorized by the Surgeon General."

After the war, it evolved into the tri-service Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

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