National Museum of Health and Medicine
An astounding collection of medical specimens, including bits of President Lincoln
Category Medical Museums
Once housed in a grand building on the National Mall, but now relegated to the uptown campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, the National Museum of Health and Medicine houses a staggering 24-million medical items, including anatomical and pathological specimens, antique instruments, and important historical medical documents. It features a changing public exhibit. One of the more notable group of anatomical specimens is bone fragments and hair from Lincoln's skull along with the bullet that ended the presidents life.
We have Lincoln himself to thank for the preserving of these items along with the rest of the collection at the NMHM. In 1862 Lincoln appointed William Alexander Hammond, a neurologist, to be the 11th Surgeon General of the U.S. Army. The National Museum of Health and Medicine was established that same year under Hammond’s orders. Its mission was to “collect, and to forward to the office of the Surgeon General all specimens of morbid anatomy, surgical or medical, which may be regarded as valuable." The collection includes many items from the Civil War, including medical instruments and an unusual human skull from a soldier who was shot across the top of the head, with the skull plate cleaving the bullet in two halves. There is a special emphasis on military medicine, with representation from the wars of the 20th century.
The medical items on display in the NMHM includes anatomical and pathological specimens, such as a row of skeletons arranged by height and illustrating different stages of development, a conjoined twin specimen preserved in alcohol, and a Trichobezoar, or human hairball, removed from a 12 year old girl who compulsively ate her hair for 6 years. The museum also houses antique instruments, and a huge collection of microscopes, notably the one used by Hooke while writing Micrographia, as well as important historical medical documents.
Keep an eye out at the museum for the off-white mummified head and shoulders of a girl who died naturally in the late 1800s and was embalmed using an arsenic-laced formula illustrating the preservative powers of arsenic.
Researchers interested in scientific studies in the Anatomical Collections should contact the collections manager by calling (202) 782-2200 or sending an e-mail to nmhmweb@afip.osd.mil.
Join us on March 20th on Obscura Day for a tour of the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Come explore an astounding collection of anatomical and pathological specimens dating back to the Civil War.
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- Hours All year except Christmas, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m
- Website http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum/
- Address 6900 Georgia Avenue, Washington, District Of Columbia, United States
- Cost Contribution
The museum is a short cab or bus ride from the Silver Spring or Takoma Park stops on Metrorail's Red Line. If you drive onto Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where the museum is located, your car may be stopped for a thorough inspection. Whether you drive or walk onto the campus, you must present a valid motor vehicle driver's license or other picture I.D. card and tell the gate personnel that the museum is your destination. Drivers will also be asked to present their vehicle's registration and insurance identification cards, which must be current in order to be given permission to enter. All adult passengers need to show a photo ID, but children in care of parents or guardians do not need to present identification.
Comments
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Thank you for sharing. I hope that anyone who is in the area will get the opportunity to check it out. The photos are amazing and some of them are unimaginable. The preservation are incredible.
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