Detail map of Washington, District of Columbia, United States Overview map of Washington, District of Columbia, United States

A: Washington, District of Columbia, United States

William A. Hammond Founds the National Museum of Health and Medicine

1862
U.S. Army Surgeon General William A. Hammond. Photo preserved in the Library of Congress.
U.S. Army Surgeon General William A. Hammond. Photo preserved in the Library of Congress.

U.S. Army Surgeon General William A. Hammond established the Army Medical Museum during the American Civil War as a center for the collection of specimens for research in military medicine and surgery.

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. The Army Medical Museum's first curator, John Brinton, visited mid-Atlantic battlefields and solicited contributions from doctors throughout the Union Army.

During and after the war, AMM staff photographed wounded soldiers showing effects of gunshot wounds as well as results of amputations and other surgical procedures.

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