Existing comment:
To Bind Up
The Nation's Wounds
Medicine During the Civil War
The National Museum of Health and Medicine was established during the Civil War. As a means of centralizing and preserving medical knowledge gained during the war and fostering medical education as the war still raged, Surgeon General William Hammond instituted the Army Medical Museum in May 1862. He required forwarding from the battlefields and hospitals "all specimens... surgical and medical, which may be considered valuable" in achieving these goals. To recognize its continuing and expanded mission, the name of the museum was later changed to the National Museum of Health and Medicine. |