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.
Monday, March 7, 2016
New book on museums and human remains out
How Many Human Skeletons Are in US Museums?
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
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.
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 NowDr. 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.
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
[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
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:
Sponsored by:
NLM's History of Medicine Division
Jeffrey S. Reznick, PhD, Chief
Event contact:
Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD
Coordinator of Public Services
History of Medicine Division
National Library of Medicine, NIH
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
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