He wasn't a historian of medicine, but his long-term longitudinal followups become a history of some sort. Of interest to us is his preservation of military medical material from the Vietnam War, including booby traps, which are now in the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Fragility of Man photographs
https://www.instagram.com/fragility_of_man
My neighbor Roger, as well as being a firefighter, is an artist. He's more in the momento mori tradition than a medical museum one, but I think readers here will enjoy these. It's a plastic skeleton of course.
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Beneath the Sheets: Anatomy, Art and Power exhibit at Thackray Museum of Medicine
The shocking truth behind historic anatomical artDeborah Nicholls-Lee
Deborah Nicholls-Lee
Thursday, December 4, 2025
The Maude Abbott Medical Museum's website
I got a very kind note from a staff member today, so for the first time in years, I popped over to their website. It's a nice, sleek guide, and I'm looking forward to checking out their newsletters. It's so nice to see photos of the museum; when I tried to find it about 35 years ago (sigh), I had no luck at all. Dr. Richard Fraser really revitalized the collection.
If anyone can recommend a good paper on Abbott, her role in the International Association of Medical Museums, and her work with the Army Medical Museum, I'd be grateful. I was starting to look into that via the IAMM's journal but never finished that research. I literally just moved cubicles again at my current job and was able to put my books on a bookshelf for the first time since COVID so I got to see all the medical museum histories again.
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
A history of The Medical & Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion is online
Over 20 years ago, I wrote a couple of papers - ""An enduring monument" : Philadelphia's contributions to The Medical & Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1870-1888)" lecture for "Philadelphia, the 'Mecca' of North American Medical Publishing" session, Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing, London, 10-13 July 2002 and "'The Extent of These Materials is Simply Enormous': The Creation and Publication of The Medical & Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion from 1862 to 1888," lecture for the American Association for the History of Medicine, 2 May 2004. These evolved into a version prepared for print that was never accepted for publication. This fall I was surprised to see that a good version isn't online anywhere, so I attached the slides from the original talk, and uploaded it to the Medical Heritage Library at
'The Extent of These Materials is Simply Enormous': The Creation and Publication of The Medical & Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion from 1862 to 1888
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Mutter Museum launches massive expansion
I'm somewhat surprised by this (ok, very surprised as the director was forced out this year) and hope it works out well for them.
College of Physicians and Mütter Museum will undergo a $27 million expansion and renovation
Thursday, October 9, 2025
Family Destinations Guide recommends the NMHM
It's closed at the moment due to the government shutdown though.
The Bizarre Museum In Maryland You've Probably Never Heard Of
https://familydestinationsguide.com/heard-bizarre-museum-maryland/Saturday, September 27, 2025
Military medicine displays at the Canadian War Museum
Canadian War museum medical displays from my friend M McMahon. The first one is from the war of 1812. Then WWI and WWIi.
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Walter Reed Forest Glen Annex painting
I rescued this painting from a leaking building when I worked for the medical museum -
From Girls' School to Army Hospital: Retired U.S. Army Col. Donald E. Hall, Ph.D. Explores the Legacy of the Walter Reed Forest Glen Annex
Thursday, July 24, 2025
“Carry On:” The History and Innovation of Physical and Occupational Therapy in Military Medicine Exhibit
Images of the National Museum of Health and Medicine exhibit, which is mostly Army-focused, are at https://www.dvidshub.net/image/9200656/carry-history-and-innovation-physical-and-occupational-therapy-military-medicine-exhibit
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Mutter Museum articles
A Medical-History Museum Contends with Its Collection of Human Remains
Supporters saw the Mütter's preserved fetuses, skulls, and "Soap Lady" as a celebration of human difference. New management saw an ethical and a political minefield.
From Spectacle to Stewardship
What Ethical Leadership Looks Like When Museums Are Entrusted With the Dead
Friday, August 16, 2024
Curator Anna Dhody resigns from the Mütter Museum
Longtime curator Anna Dhody resigns from the Mütter Museum
by Rosa Cartagena, Rita Giordano, The Philadelphia Inquirer August 14 2024
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Aug 7: Military Medicine and the Hidden Costs of War lecture at Library of Congress
Military Medicine and the Hidden Costs of War
Join the John W. Kluge Center and University of Minnesota Political Science Professor Tanisha M
Fazal for an event examining the effect improvements in medical care in conflict zones
on the long term costs of war. Fazal is the author of State Death: The Politics of Geography and
Conquest, Occupation, and Annexation, and Wars of Law: Unintended Consequences in the
Regulation of Armed Conflict. This event will be available to watch live, virtually as well as in person in room LJ-119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress.
Join the John W. Kluge Center and University of Minnesota Political Science Professor Tanisha M
Fazal for an event examining the effect improvements in medical care in conflict zones
on the long term costs of war. Fazal is the author of State Death: The Politics of Geography and
Conquest, Occupation, and Annexation, and Wars of Law: Unintended Consequences in the
Regulation of Armed Conflict. This event will be available to watch live, virtually as well as in person in room LJ-119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress.
Request ADA accommodations 5 days in advance at
202-707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov
August 7, 2024
4:00pm
Thomas Jefferson Building,
Room LJ-119
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Michael Stratmoen - 202-707-3751
202-707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov
August 7, 2024
4:00pm
Thomas Jefferson Building,
Room LJ-119
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Michael Stratmoen - 202-707-3751
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Swann Fellow Lecture, Tuesday, March 12 in Library of Congress
Were They so Torturous? Reevaluating Modern Surgery's Underdog Story
12:00-1:00 pm Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Swann Fellow Lecture
12:00-1:00 pm Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Swann Fellow Lecture
Dining Room A, 6th Floor Madison Building
Swann Fellow, Zoe Copeman, PhD candidate in Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, argues that the history of surgery relies on the narrative of
surgery's so-called "torturous" past to legitimize the practices of elite, university-trained medical men, reducing the once valued work of middling and lower-class practitioners to quackery. Drawing from the Library of Congress's eighteenth- and nineteenth-century caricatures, her research traces changes in the public perception of surgery and how visual media across disciplines would transform the surgeon (and his tools) into powerful metaphors of European and American modernity. This event will be recorded.
surgery's so-called "torturous" past to legitimize the practices of elite, university-trained medical men, reducing the once valued work of middling and lower-class practitioners to quackery. Drawing from the Library of Congress's eighteenth- and nineteenth-century caricatures, her research traces changes in the public perception of surgery and how visual media across disciplines would transform the surgeon (and his tools) into powerful metaphors of European and American modernity. This event will be recorded.
For more information:
Sara W. Duke, Curator, Popular & Applied
Graphic Art, sduk@loc.gov
Graphic Art, sduk@loc.gov
Monday, February 26, 2024
WaPo articles on Smithsonian human remains collections
Smithsonian should speed up return of human remains, task force says
A Washington Post investigative series into the Smithsonian's collection of at least 30,700 human bones and other body parts, including more than 250 brains. This series reveals the museum's "racial brain collection," the anthropologist behind its curation and the stories of those whose brains were taken.
Have a tip or story idea about the collection? Email our team at thecollection@washpost.com.
Read the stories
Read the stories
Key findings from The Post's investigation on the Smithsonian's human remains
Listen on Post Reports
When Mary died in 1933, her brain was sent to Ales Hrdlicka, the Smithsonian's "bone doctor." The Post couldn't find any records that Mary or her family consented to this. So what happened to Mary's brain? And what is the extent of the Smithsonian's "racial brain collection"?
Watch the videos
"Searching for Maura": Animated illustrated reporting. Also available on YouTube.
"Paghahanap kay Maura": Animated illustrated reporting. Also available on YouTube.
How The Post reported on the Smithsonian's human remains. Also available on YouTube.
Order "Searching for Maura" and "Paghahanap kay Maura"
Maura came to St. Louis from the Philippines to be put on display at the 1904 World's Fair. Records suggest that after she fell ill and died, a world-renowned anthropologist took part of her brain. Few people would know what happened to her for more than a century.
Available in English and Filipino. Order your copy now.
Tune in on Washington Post Live
The Post's Nicole Dungca interviews Michael Blakey, a member of the newly created Smithsonian human remains task force, about The Post's year-long investigation and how the organization is reckoning with this history. Watch the interview.
About the reporters
Claire Healy is a freelance journalist and newsroom copy aide who has written for The Post.
Nicole Dungca is an investigative reporter for The Post.
Andrew Ba Tran is an investigative data reporter for The Post.
1/9
Sunday, August 20, 2023
Monday, August 14, 2023
Friday, June 9, 2023
Friday, March 31, 2023
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Exhibit at Walter Reed Highlights African Americans in Civil War Medicine
Exhibit at Walter Reed Highlights African Americans in Civil War Medicine
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/437560/exhibit-walter-reed-highlights-african-americans-civil-war-medicine
To kick off Black History Month, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center welcomes Dr. Robert Slawson, from the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, as a guest docent Feb. 2 for an exhibit highlighting the contributions of African Americans in Civil War medicine. The exhibit is on display throughout February on the first floor of the America Building (Bldg. 19).... click through the link for the rest of the article.
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