A new exhibit at the world famous Smithsonian National Museum
of American History, The Price of Freedom: Americans at War,
features 44 images of Civil War soldiers. The images are on loan
from a much-lesser known museum, the National Museum of Health
and Medicine on the campus of Walter Reed Army Medical Center
in Washington DC. The images are from the Otis Historical Archives,
and exhibit how war, specifically the Civil War, has shaped American
history.
The photos from this specialized museum focus on how the medical
aspects impacted Civil War soldiers, mostly amputees and wounded
survivors of the bloodiest war in American history. The images,
displayed on a cloth mural, show the graphic and painful results
of battle, such as facial mutilation, loss of limbs, and permanent
bullet wounds. "The goal of this part of the exhibit was
to show the human side of combat and its lingering effect on people's
lives after the war," said David Allison, Ph.D., project
director and chief curator of the exhibit.
The mural is placed adjacent to a large tree stump that was
removed from a battlefield in Spotsylvania, Virginia. The ferocity
of the hailstorm coming from Union rifles literally severed
the 22-inch oak, and took the lives of 2000 soldiers. The location
of the mutilated tree stump adjacent to the collage of injured
soldiers creates an arresting image that further demonstrates
the heavy toll of war on both humans and the environment.
The photos used in the collage was drawn from the museum's
Otis Historical Archives. This extensive collection includes
manuscripts, documents, archives, films, prints, slides, paintings,
photographs, illustrations, and institutional records related
to military health and medicine.
The National Museum of Health and Medicine has its own permanent
Civil War exhibit entitled, To Bind Up the Nation's Wounds:
Medicine During the Civil War. The display tells the story
through the eyes of surgeons as well as the sick and wounded.
Included here is the museum's most famous artifact, the bullet
that killed President Abraham Lincoln and the probe used during
the autopsy on the night of his assassination. Also on display
are surgical tools used by Civil War doctors, photographs of
amputees, and the leg bone of Major General Daniel Sickles,
which he visited regularly after losing it at the Battle of
Gettysburg.
Reprinted from Flesh & Bones, a publication
of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, June/July 2005.
For more information about the museum, call 202-782-2200 or
visit their website at www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum.com
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