National Museum of Health and Medicine
The National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) is a major medical history and science museum located in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, DC. It serves as a national repository for artefacts, specimens, and archival materials documenting the history of medicine, military medicine, and biomedical research in the United States. The museum traces its origins to the American Civil War and has evolved into one of the world’s most comprehensive collections devoted to health, disease, and medical innovation.
Originally founded as the Army Medical Museum (AMM) in 1862, the institution has undergone multiple relocations, name changes, and administrative restructurings. Today, it functions as an element of the Defense Health Agency and is a member of the National Health Sciences Consortium, reflecting its continued integration with military and federal health research institutions.
Foundation and Early History
The Army Medical Museum was established in 1862 by William Alexander Hammond, Surgeon General of the United States Army, during the American Civil War. Its original purpose was to collect, preserve, and study specimens related to military medicine and surgery, particularly those arising from battlefield injuries and diseases.
Hammond directed medical officers in the field to collect specimens of morbid anatomy, along with bullets, shrapnel, and other foreign objects removed during surgery, and forward them to the museum. The first curator, John H. Brinton, personally visited battlefields across the mid-Atlantic region and actively solicited contributions from Union Army surgeons.
During and after the Civil War, museum staff documented injuries through photography, capturing images of gunshot wounds, amputations, and surgical outcomes. These materials formed the basis of The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, a landmark six-volume publication released between 1870 and 1883 that became one of the most important medical records of the conflict.
Scientific Contributions in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
By the late nineteenth century, the Army Medical Museum had expanded beyond specimen collection into active medical research. Staff pioneered photomicrographic techniques and developed advanced systems for cataloguing medical information. The museum’s growing library and archival practices later became the foundation for the National Library of Medicine.
Researchers associated with the museum made important contributions to the study of infectious diseases, including work related to the cause of yellow fever. The institution also played a role in early vaccination research, particularly for typhoid fever. During the First World War, museum personnel were involved in vaccination programmes and public health education initiatives, including campaigns to reduce sexually transmissible diseases among military personnel.
Mid-Twentieth Century Transformation
By the Second World War, research at the museum increasingly focused on pathology. In 1946, the Army Medical Museum became a division of the newly established Army Institute of Pathology, which was renamed the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in 1949. The museum itself underwent several name changes, becoming the Medical Museum of the AFIP in 1949, the Armed Forces Medical Museum in 1974, and finally the National Museum of Health and Medicine in 1989.
During this period, portions of the museum’s library and archival holdings were transferred to the National Library of Medicine following its creation in 1956. At its peak in the 1960s, when located near the National Mall, the museum attracted between 400,000 and 500,000 visitors annually. Subsequent relocations to less accessible sites resulted in declining visitor numbers by the 1990s.
Attempts at Revitalisation and Relocation
In 1989, during his final year as Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop commissioned the National Museum of Health and Medicine Foundation to explore strategies for revitalising the museum, including the possibility of returning it to a prominent location on the National Mall. Legislative proposals in the early 1990s sought funding for a new National Health Museum facility, but political, financial, and architectural objections prevented their implementation.
As a result, the museum continued operating at military sites. From 1971 to 2011, it was housed at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Following the Base Realignment and Closure process initiated in 2005, the museum was relocated for the tenth time to the Forest Glen Annex in Silver Spring, Maryland. The NMHM closed to the public in April 2011 and reopened in a new purpose-adapted building in May 2012.
In October 2015, the museum officially became part of the Defense Health Agency, reinforcing its role within the United States military health system.
Collections and Holdings
The National Museum of Health and Medicine houses approximately 25 million artefacts, making it one of the largest medical collections in the world. These holdings are organised into five major collections.
The Historical Collections document the evolution of medical technology since the early nineteenth century and include more than 12,000 objects such as X-ray equipment, microscopes, surgical instruments, anatomical models, and medical numismatics.
The Anatomical Collections comprise over 5,000 skeletal specimens and approximately 10,000 preserved organs, illustrating a wide range of diseases, injuries, and medical conditions.
The Otis Historical Archives contain photographs, illustrations, and documents related to health and medicine, with more than 350 sub-collections covering medical practice from the Civil War to the present.
The Human Developmental Anatomy Center maintains the largest collection of embryological material in the United States and is internationally recognised for its imaging techniques and three-dimensional reconstructions of human development.
The Neuroanatomical Collections consist of nine specialised collections focusing on human and non-human neuroanatomy and neuropathology.
Abraham Lincoln Assassination Artefacts
Among the museum’s most renowned holdings are artefacts associated with President Abraham Lincoln and his assassination on 14 April 1865. These include a copy of Lincoln’s life mask and hands, the bullet fired from John Wilkes Booth’s Derringer pistol, the probe used during the autopsy to locate the bullet, fragments of Lincoln’s hair and skull, and the blood-stained shirt cuff of the attending surgeon.
The museum also displays a small portion of Booth’s spine, surgically removed in an attempt to dislodge the bullet that killed him after his capture in Virginia.
Exhibitions and Educational Role
The NMHM features permanent and rotating exhibitions that explore anatomy, pathology, medical innovation, and military medicine. Notable displays include Trauma Bay II: Balad, Iraq, which incorporates elements from an actual emergency room tent used by United States forces between 2003 and 2007, highlighting advances in combat trauma care and survival rates exceeding 95 per cent.
Other exhibitions examine the evolution of battlefield surgery, the development of the microscope, and the history of military medical innovation from the Civil War through Vietnam and beyond. These exhibits emphasise the museum’s long-standing mission to collect, interpret, and share lessons learned from medicine in times of conflict.