History of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP
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The National Museum of Health and Medicine is remembered by many as the Army Medical Museum and has been located in some of Washington’s most historic and memorable buildings.

August 1, 1862 to December 31, 1862

The Army Medical Museum’s first location was in the Office of the Army Suregon General, located on the second floor rear of Riggs Bank Building at the corner of President Place (now Pennsylvania Avenue) and 15th St, N.W., Washington, D.C. While inside this building, the museum grew from the top of the first curator’s desk to some shelves put up for his use.

January 1, 1863 - August 24, 1863

The museum moved to Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., now numbered 1719-1721. While at this site, the museum issued it’s first catalog, but new and larger quarters were needed as increasing numbers of specimens arrived from hospitals and the field.

August 25, 1863- December 21, 1866

A building was rented that belonged to Washington philanthropist W.W. Corcoran at 1325 H Street, NW, between 13 and 14th Streets opposite the New York Presbyterian Church. The so-called “Corcoran School House” was variously described in documents as a “mechanics library,” the “Library Building occupied by Miss Middleton’s School,” and as the “Art Gallery Building.” It was renovated at a cost of $2,000 and rented for $1,000 annually.

December 22, 1866 - November 8, 1887

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…”

1887 - 1947

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 Street at the site of the current Hirshhorn Museum on the Mall.

1947 - 1960

A committee of the National Research Council charged by the Army Surgeon General with investigating the adequacy of the museum’s facilities, reported that the “Old Red Brick” was now “antiquated, overcrowded, (and) obviously cannot be modernized.” The museum was “temporarily” moved into its sixth home, Chase Hall, a former barracks for U.S. Coast Guard women reservists, across Independence Avenue from its then location. Material in storage space being used on Main Avenue and in a warehouse on Columbia Pike in Virginia was also relocated into Chase Hall. Additional space for the museum was secured 18 months later in another building, Tampa Hall, shared with other government agencies on Independence Avenue. The annual number of visitors to the museum at this location reached a high of 587,000.

1971-present

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. 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). For the museum’s eighth location, the museum moved from the temporary building back into the “Old Red Brick” it had previously occupied (1962-1971). 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.