Wednesday, April 12
Tour of the National Museum of Health & Medicine
Silver Spring, Maryland
Docent Tour 10:30 am – noon
No charge for the docent tour and Museum parking
Optional Lunch and Visit to National Park Seminary at Forest Glen
Established as the Army Medical Museum during the Civil War. The military medical museum is about the past, present and future of American military medicine. While the name may be boring, the Museum is not. It is one of Montgomery County’s hidden treasures. The Museum aims to share the value of military medicine to its visitors, the value both to the military and also what the value of military medicine is to the general public.
Our docent is Dr. Willen, a graduate of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He completed his Medical Residency at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He has been a presenter at the Society of Civil War Surgeons Conference and the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Maryland. Dr. Willen is a docent at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the Clara Barton Office of Missing Soldiers, and the National Museum of Health Medicine in Silver Spring, MD. He is also a docent for The Society of the Cincinnati, a fraternal organization whose membership is largely restricted to descendants of military officers who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
Please wear comfortable shoes. This outing is for FHNN and Little Falls Village members and volunteers as part of our collaboration. Register online. Members and volunteers who need help registering can email information.fhnn@gmail.com with Medicine in the subject line. Transportation will be by carpools. Email us if you are interested in carpooling. After the tour ends, some attendees may wish to visit the National Park Seminary at Forest Glen and/or have lunch at a nearby restaurant.
The centerpiece of the Museum’s wing devoted to “Advances in Military Medicine” is a seven-foot-wide, 3000-pound slab that served as the floor of Trauma Bay II at the U.S. Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad, Iraq. The scarred and stained concrete bears testament to the life-and-death dramas that played out in the Trauma Bay when it served as one of the military’s main emergency-medicine facilities during Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2003-07. Some of the very first visitors to see the floor at the Museum were the men and women who were still recovering from their injuries in Iraq,
There is also an exhibit of artifacts related to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination on April 14, 1865, including the bullet that killed Lincoln. Lincoln’s care was provided in part by members of the staff of the Army Medical Museum.
Other exhibits provide information on advancements in medical technology, with devices on display ranging from 17th century microscopes to contemporary DNA kits used to identify the remains of fallen service members. There are also anatomical exhibits on display.
Below are links to the Museum website and the Save Our Seminary website (optional National Park Seminary visit after the Museum tour). The optional lunch will be at a nearby restaurant. As of March 14, the Museum restricts occupancy to no more than 40 visitors at a time.
The Seminary is across the street from the Museum. It takes approximately 30 minutes to walk through the Seminary and look at the signs explaining the significance of the Seminary. For more information, please email us.
https://medicalmuseum.health.mil/index.cfm?p=visit.about
Reopening Visitor Guidelines, National Museum of Health and Medicine
https://saveourseminary.org/