"BATTLEFIELD SURGERY 101: FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO VIETNAM" IS NEWEST EXHIBIT AT NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE
 WASHINGTON-The National Museum of Health and Medicine has opened its
newest exhibit, "Battlefield Surgery 101: From the Civil War to Vietnam." It
will run indefinitely.
Drawn exclusively from the museum's historical archives and
historical collections, "Battlefield Surgery 101" presents the highlights of
the evolution of military surgical activities over the last 140 years
through a selection of photographs and 19th- and 20th- century artifacts.
The exhibit examines how the military operating room has evolved over time
and changed with technological advances, and also illustrates the challenges
faced by the men and women who worked there.
 "In addition to being a scientific and medical institution, the
National Museum of Health and Medicine has its strongest connection to the
military," said Adrianne Noe, Ph.D., the museum's director. "The exhibit,
"Battlefield Surgery 101," really informs that connection, at the same time
that it reveals a part of the military battlefield experience that is not
often appreciated elsewhere. It is an extremely timely exhibition, given our
current military engagements."
The exhibit's curators are Jim Connor, Ph.D., the museum's assistant
director for collections, and Mike Rhode, archivist of the museum's Otis
Historical Archives. Rhode and Connor worked extensively with U.S. Army Col.
David Lounsbury, M.D., director of the Borden Institute, and retired U.S.
Army Col. Ronald Bellamy, M.D., military medical editor at the Borden
Institute, to develop the exhibit's themes and structure. The Borden
Institute, also located on the campus of Walter Reed Army Medical Center,
plans to produce a catalogue to accompany the exhibit, which will feature
additional information about military surgery.
 The exhibit consists of more than 100 photographs that document the wounds
of soldiers and operations performed by military surgeons both on and near
the battlefield. The photographs, many of which have never before been seen
by the public, illustrate how the military operating room changed and
improved from the Civil War (1860s) to Vietnam (1960s). The exhibit also
includes a video that focuses on how the helicopter drastically changed
military medical care by transporting wounded soldiers more quickly during
the Vietnam War, and how it later became an essential part of civilian
trauma care.
"We picked the photographs that will be displayed because they cover
roughly 100 years of military surgery, as well as illustrate interesting
components of military medicine over that timeframe," said Rhode. "The
images, all of which will be accompanied by their original captions,
document the medical advances that have so greatly decreased mortality in
warfare, and illuminate yet another facet of the museum's long history of
collecting military medical material."
 The photographic portion of the exhibition includes three life-sized murals
of photographs taken during the Civil War (1860s), the Russo-Japanese War
(1904), and the Korean War (1950s). Each mural demonstrates the rates of
medical advancement during the 19th and 20th centuries. As Rhode noted, "the
differences in the medical technology available during the Civil War and the
Russo-Japanese War are very large. However, the gap between the
Russo-Japanese War and the Korean War is much smaller, and the one between
the Korean War and Vietnam War is miniscule." He added that the captions
accompanying the murals explain these differences in detail.
Artifacts from 20th and 21st century military conflicts are also on display,
including German, Korean, and American medical kits, a variety of different
types of bandages used during times of war, American and European surgical
sets, and a selection of prosthetic limbs dating from the 1900s up to the
present. Recent medical advances are also on display, such as QuikClot, a
granulated mineral coagulant developed by a Connecticut-based pharmaceutical
company in 2001, which is now being used by the U.S. military to treat
serious wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 "Most of the pieces making up this exhibit have never been displayed
before, and while a few visitors may find some of this material disturbing,
we believe it will help the public understand the challenges faced by those
in harm's way and by those who care for them," Connor said. "Most of the
artifacts are from the 20th century, dating right up to current hostilities.
The artifacts and photographs really show how the museum addresses its
mission and its role of military relevance, as well as reveal the
intricacies of the system of medical care within the military during times
of war."
The National Museum of Health and Medicine began as the national
repository for Civil War injuries when 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.
 Founded to study and improve medical conditions during the American Civil
War, the museum is an element of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
Its specimens and artifacts were the first museum collection in the country
and are currently the only in Washington, D.C. to be registered by the U.S.
Department of the Interior as a National Historic Landmark. The Secretary of
the Interior, who has designated only 2,340 districts, sites, buildings, and
structures for listing in the National Register, selected the museum's
collection because of its "exceptional value in commemorating and
illustrating the history of the United States."
Open every day except Dec. 25 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the museum is
located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Ave. and Elder
Street, NW, Washington, D.C. The web site is nmhm.washingtondc.museum and the telephone number is
202-782-2200. Admission and parking are free.
Borden
Institute |
