48. How many accessions does the museum have each year?
In 2005 there were 43 accessions of unique artifacts, specimens, and archival material that expanded the museum's holdings by several hundred items. Of these, 34 went to the museum's Historical Collections, 4 to the Otis Historical Archives, 3 jointly to the Historical Collections and Otis Historical Archives; 1 to the Neuroanatomical Collections, and 1 to the Anatomical Collections.
Among the more interesting items acquired were:
The museum received nearly 200 lantern slides from the family of a World War I era U.S. Army dentist who gathered them while serving in France and in the United States. They graphically depict patients who have received facial reconstruction surgery. Dr. Archibald Louis Miller, a graduate of George Washington College who joined the Army as a lieutenant in May 1917, was promoted to major in early 1918 and sent to Base Hospital No. 6 in France. While overseas he was assigned to the Maxillo Facial Services of the American Expeditionary Force. The collection was passed from Miller to his daughter, Evelyn Louise Miller Peterson. After her death in 2003 her three surviving sons decided that because their grandfather had served at Walter Reed Hospital they would donate the collection to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, because today it is located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. More about Miller's lantern slides.
Robert Hamilton, 14, of
Topeka, Kan., one of the more than 2,200 student finalists in the annual National History Day (NHD) program, donated an historic artifact that he used in his project to the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Hamilton surprised museum staff by donating the brick that he used in his performance piece entitled, “Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine: Communicating Public Health Reform in Kansas,” a 9-minute monologue explaining the achievements and progress Dr. Crumbine made in Kansas in the early 1900s. The brick, once a part of an Erie, Kan. sidewalk, is engraved with the words “Don’t Spit on Sidewalk” and memorializes Dr. Crumbine’s historic campaign for public health reform. More about the brick.
The National Museum of Health and Medicine received more than two dozen original pieces of medical equipment that were used to provide occupational health treatment in the hospital of the Pittsburgh plant of the General Motors (GM) Corporation in West Mifflin, Pa. Built in 1950 as part of the Fisher Body Division of General Motors, the Pittsburgh Plant fabricates sheet metal components for current and past model GM cars and trucks. The facility currently employs more than 650 people. The on-site medical facilities have provided employees with treatment for injuries as well as being a resource for wellness initiatives since the plant opened. More about the medical equipment.
In 2004 there were 57 accessions of unique artifacts, specimens, and archival material that expanded the museum's holdings by several hundred items. Of these, 43 went to the museum's Historical Collections, 7 to the Otis Historical Archives, 2 jointly to the Historical Collections and Otis Historical Archives; 2 to the Neuroanatomical Collections, 2 to the Anatomical Collections, and 1 to the Human Developmental Anatomy Center.
Among the more interesting items acquired were:
- The museum received a U.S. Army map case used in France during World War I by U.S. Army Maj. Charles G. Mixter, when he was an assistant surgeon for the U.S. Army's Fourth Corps under the command of Gen. Pershing. The case, 9 inches high and 5 ½ inches long when closed, opens to three panels 9 inches high and 16 ½ inches wide. The artifact was donated by Dr. Charles G. Mixter III of Exeter, N.H., a general surgeon on staff at Exeter Hospital known as a leader in the development of minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery. More about Mixter’s map case.
- The museum acquired the professional and personal effects of two very different physicians that practiced in America during the 20th century -- the Rabkin collection and the Senseman collection. The Rabkin collection includes more than 200 objects related to cardiology and internal medicine from the last half of the 20th century, while the Senseman collection consists of hundreds of items related to the practice of homeopathic medicine during the early and middle part of the 20th century. More about the Rabkin and Senseman collections.
- The museum acquired two clotting agents -- QuikClot and the HemCon bandage – that utilize technological advances to help stop severe bleeding in serious injuries and are being used by the United States military to treat soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. QuikClot, manufactured by Z-Medica, a pharmaceutical company based in Newington, Conn., is unlike many traditional clotting agents. Instead of adding clotting factors to a wound in order to help it clot, this granulated mineral compound can be poured directly into a wound, where it removes liquid substances, causing a clot to form almost immediately. The company says that because QuikClot "contains no biological or botanical substances," it does not cause allergic reactions. The second clotting agent acquired by the museum, the HemCon bandage, differs from QuikClot because it is a biological, rather than mineral, compound. The bandage is made of "chitosan," a 4-inch by 4-inch bandage that costs approximately $90 each. HemCon, Inc. says that this bandage does not cause an allergic reaction, even in people with shellfish allergies, because chitosan does not contain the proteins necessary to cause a reaction.
More about QuikClot and the HemCon.
In 2003 there were 66 accessions of unique artifacts, specimens, and archival material that expanded the museum's holdings by several hundred items. Of these, 46 went to the museum's Historical Collections, 12 to the Otis Historical Archives, 4 to the Neuroanatomical Collections, 2 to the Anatomical Collections, and 2 to the Human Developmental Anatomy Center.
Among the more interesting items acquired were:
- Dr. Manuel del Cerro of Pittsford, N.Y., an amateur photographer who began collecting microscopes 30 years before, donated an all-brass, 19th- century Bausch & Lomb petrological microscope to the museum. It is the first of 500 in his collection that he intends to donate to the museum, together with an extensive library and ephemera pertaining to the microscope, its history, and use. More about Dr. del Cerro's donation.
- The museum acquired two wheelchairs to add to its collection. Dr. Waldo R. Fisher, a retired endocrinologist living in Gainesville, Fla., donated a wheelchair thought to date from the early 19th century that he acquired in 1953 after his first year of medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. The second wheelchair, dating from the early 20th century, was made for the use of Frances Z. Simmons, who died in 2003 at the age 78. More about the wheelchairs.
- The museum received slides, photographs and military records from the estate of U.S. Army Maj. John J. Lucas, D.D.S., who died in 1993 at the age of 82. He served as a dentist aboard the Shamrock, a U.S. Army hospital ship, for nearly a full year during World War II. More about this donation.
In 2002 there were 43 accessions of unique artifacts, specimens, and archival material that expanded the museum's holdings by several hundred items. Of these, 29 went to the museum's Historical Collections, 7 to the Otis Historical Archives, 3 to the Neuroanatomical Collections, 2 to the Anatomical Collections, and 2 to the Human Developmental Anatomy Center.
Among the more interesting items acquired were:
- A group of scientists led by Lt. Col. Ted Hadfield, chief of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology's Division of Microbiology, worked as part of a research team to develop a detection device that could monitor the air and alert battlefield soldiers to biological warfare. What they developed was the Biological Aerosol Warning System (BAWS), one of which was donated to the museum. More about the BAWS.
- Dr. James B. McCormick, a physician and inventor, donated a collection of his inventions to the museum. McCormick is from the Lincolnwood, Ill. suburb of Chicago, and holds 41 patents for laboratory and clinical science equipment. More about Dr. McCormick's donation.
- When a letter sent to Sen. Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office in October 2001 was found to contain anthrax, worries of bioterrorism concerned many. As a precautionary measure Senate staffers, postal employees, and others believed to be exposed to the bacteria were tested for inhalation anthrax and prescribed Ciprofloxacin, Doxycycline, or Penicillin. The museum added a bottle of each of these antibiotics to its historical collections. More about the antibiotics.
In 2001 there were 39 accessions; 34 went to the museum's Historical Collections, 3 to the Otis Historical Archives, and 2 to the Human Developmental Anatomy Center.
Among the more interesting items acquired were:
- A microscope from the FBI that it used for crime analysis during some of its most sensational investigations during the last 30 years. More about the FBI microscope.
- R2-D2 and C-3PO from "Star Wars," The Robot from "Lost in Space," and Johnny 5 from "Short Circuit" are all famous robots, and now the National Museum of Health and Medicine has its own. A HelpMate mobile robotic courier was donated to the museum by the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Named after Walter Reed's wife, Emilie, the robot stands 4 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs approximately 600 pounds. More about Emilie.
- The National Museum of Health and Medicine has acquired the human development collection of the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C. The collection consists of approximately 50 specimens ranging in age from 10 weeks to 6 months and was added to the holdings of the museum's Human Developmental Anatomy Center. More about the George Washington School of Medicine Collection.
The museum's fourth move was to the Ford's Theater building at 511 10th St., NW, which was closed as a theater immediately after the assassination of President Lincoln and had been in the possession of the government since July 8, 1865. An Act of Congress on April 6, 1866 provided for the purchase of the building "for the deposit and safekeeping of documentary papers relative to the soldiers of the army of the United States and of the Museum of the Medical and Surgical Department of the Army." It was at this location that the museum adopted its first visiting rules, including guidelines that visitors "deposit canes, umbrellas or bundles at the door with an orderly…" (Dec. 22, 1866 - Nov. 8, 1887)
In his annual report for 1880, the Surgeon General called attention to the "overcrowded and unsafe condition," of the Ford's Theater building, noting that the museum was confined to the crowded and cluttered third floor and that the walls were so weak and so much out of plumb as to threaten imminent collapse. On March 2, 1885 President Arthur signed a bill appropriating $200,000 for the construction of a new brick and metal building in the vicinity of the Smithsonian. The museum moved from November 1887 until Feb. 15, 1888 into its fifth home, the "Old Red Brick" on the north side of B. Street, (now Independence Avenue) and 7th St. at the site of the current Hirshhorn Museum on the Mall. (1887-1947)
Because Chase Hall fell squarely within the area of the Southwest Washington Urban Renewal Project, it was scheduled for demolition in 1961.So, the museum's seventh location was a move into temporary quarters shared with other federal agencies in a building designated as "Temp S" on Jefferson Drive between Sixth and Seventh Streets, SW. (1960-1962)
The museum moved to its ninth and current location in 1971, closed in 1973 for the military medical school USUHS to use the space, became the Armed Forces Medical Museum in 1974, and reopened in 1976. In 1989, the museum changed its name to the National Museum of Health and Medicine. (1971-present)
