The National Museum of Health and Medicine was established during
the Civil War as the Army Medical Museum, a center for the collection
of specimens for research in military medicine and surgery. In 1862,
Surgeon General William Hammond directed medical officers in the
field to collect "specimens of morbid anatomy . . . together with
projectiles and foreign bodies removed" and to forward them to the
newly founded museum for study. The Museum's first curator, John
Brinton, visited mid-Atlantic battlefields and solicited contributions
from doctors throughout the Union Army. During and after the war,
Museum staff took pictures of wounded soldiers showing effects of
gunshot wounds as well as results of amputations and other surgical
procedures. The information collected was compiled into six volumes
of The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion,
published between 1870 and 1883.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Museum staff engaged
in various types of medical research. They pioneered in
photomicrographic techniques, established a library and cataloging
system which later formed the basis for the National Library of
Medicine, and led the Museum into research on infectious diseases
while discovering the cause of yellow fever. They contributed to
research on vaccinations for typhoid fever, and during World War I,
Museum staff were involved in vaccinations and health education
campaigns, including major efforts to combat sexually-transmissible
diseases.
By World War II, research at the Museum focused increasingly on
pathology; in 1946 the Museum became a division of the new Army
Institute of Pathology (AIP), which became the Armed Forces Institute
of Pathology (AFIP) in 1949. The Museum's library and part of its
archives were transferred to the National Library of Medicine when it
was created in 1956. The Army Medical Museum became the
Medical Museum of the AFIP in 1949, the Armed Forces Medical
Museum in 1974, and the National Museum of Health and Medicine in
1989.
Curators & Directors
Museum History
