The photo to the right is from our Medical Illustration Service Library and has the caption "Colonel Frank M. Townsend, USAF, Medical Corps, deputy director of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, examines the bullet that killed Lincoln and the probe used in treating him. On the desk is a vial containing Lincoln's skull fragments. The bullet and probe used by surgeons attending President Lincoln were given to the Institute's Medical Museum by the Lincoln Museum." MIS 05-6595-7. I remember cataloging this image so it was pretty neat to find the letter transferring the objects.
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
National Capital Parks
Washington 25, D.C.
June 20, 1956
Miss Helen Purtle
Assistant Curator, Medical Museum
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
Department of Defense
Washington 25, D.C.
Dear Miss Purtle:
Several weeks ago you made an oral request for the transfer of the bullet which killed Abraham Lincoln, together with the metal probe and six pieces of bone extracted from his skull, from the Lincoln Museum to the Medical Museum.
Since these objects, transferred to the Lincoln Museum from the Judge Advocate General's Office, War Department, on February 5, 1940, have never been displayed at the Lincoln Museum, a memorandum recommending this transfer was sent to the Director, National Park Service from this office on April 30, 1956. Permission for the transfer of these objects to the Medical Museum was granted by Associate Director E.T. Scoyen in his Memorandum to the Superintendent on June 8, 1956.
A representative of this office will make arrangements for the transfer of these objects to the Medical Museum. When these objects are received, please sign the three copies of the enclosed property forms, retain one copy for your records, and return two copies to this office in order to complete the records of the transfer.
Sincerely yours,
[signed] Edward J. Kelly
Superintendent
