The National Museum of Civil War Medicine is a U.S. historic education institution located in Frederick, Maryland. Its focus involves the medical, surgical and nursing practices during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Established | 1990 |
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Location | 48 East Patrick Street Frederick, Maryland |
Coordinates | 39°24′50″N 77°24′34″W / 39.413889°N 77.409306°W |
Type | History museum |
Website | Official Website |
The museum, which was originally proposed by Dr. Gordon E. Damman, a private collector of Civil War-era medical artifacts, was incorporated in 1990 and first opened to the public in 1996.[1] The museum moved into its current location – a three-story 19th century brick building that was home to a furniture maker/undertaker operation during the Civil War – in October 2000.[2]
The 7,000-square-foot (650 m2) museum consists of five immersion exhibits that recreate aspects of Civil War medical issues: life in an army camp, evacuation of the wounded from the battlefront, a field dressing station, a field hospital and a military hospital ward. The exhibits incorporate surviving tools and equipment from the war, including the only known surviving Civil War surgeon’s tent, surgical kits, and items pertaining to veterinary medicine.[3]
In 2006, the museum published its first book with the release of Robert G. Slawson’s Prologue to Change: African Americans in Medicine in the Civil War Era.[4] The museum has organized an annual national conference on Civil War-era medicine since 1993.[5][6]
In 2006, the museum, in cooperation with the U.S. National Park Service, began operating the Pry House Field Hospital Museum at the Antietam National Battlefield.[7] In 2014, the museum opened the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office[8] at 347 Seventh Street, NW in Washington, D.C.[9]