Browse Items (80 total)

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S. D. Gross, professor of surgery at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, was one of the country's foremost operative surgeons. He designed this brief textbook on field surgery for emergencies: portable, easy of reference, always at hand.…

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The Armory Square Hospital (now the site of the National Air and Space Museum) was active from August, 1862, through September, 1865, and many of the worst casualties of the Civil War battlefields were treated there. The patients and a former nurse…

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John Wales January enlisted in Company B of the 14th Illinois Cavalry and was captured in July, 1864. The reverse of the original print of this photograph gives January's account of his sufferings as a prisoner of war and the amputation of his own…

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This drawing, from 1863, is part of a letter to Sargent's young son, George; he wrote, I shall try and get leave to come home one of these days. I hope you will be glad to see me when I come. If you are not glad, I shall be very sorry, I can tell…

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Charles B. Johnson, who served with the 130th and 77th Illinois regiments and became a physician after the war.
Late in life, he published a memoir of his experiences with particular attention to medical care and diseases of soldiers during the…

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His medical studies interrupted due to lack of funds, Philon Currier Whidden (1839-1900) enlisted as a private with the 4th Battalion of Rifles of the 12th Massachusetts Volunteers in June, 1861. He was severely wounded in the left leg at Antietam…

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The obstetrical scene depict is dated November 30, 1864. Dr. S. W. Abbott, a former surgeon with the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, stated in 1893 that Sargent drew this while in camp in front of Petersburg. Nine days afterward he was killed by a…

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Columbia to left, waving American flag. At her feet, an eagle, shield with arrows, and boxes and barrels that are marked NW, NW SV and N.W. SAN COM. The sun setting behing mountains, artillery park, and lake with ships and monitor.

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This report to the Senate outlines the treatment of Union prisoners of war by the Confederate forces at Belle Isle.

"Your committee, therefore, are constrained to say that they can hardly avoid the conclusion, expressed by so many of our released…

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Issued twice monthly from November, 1863, to August, 1865, the Bulletin reported on the work of the Commission and the local sanitary fairs, accounts of battles and the experiences of prisoners of war, and provided a regular means to report on the…

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Issued twice monthly from November, 1863, to August, 1865, the Bulletin reported on the work of the Commission and the local sanitary fairs, accounts of battles and the experiences of prisoners of war, and provided a regular means to report on the…

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This tale of a Civil War soldier, George Dedlow, who loses both his arms and his legs but continues to experience sensation in his missing limbs the phantom limb phenomenon was written by Silas Weir Mitchell and grew out of his experience with…

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Douglass' advertising pamphlet for his artificial limbs makes a point that, unlike the Salem leg, "these limbs have never been dependent upon the Government for their support, but are thoroughly established on the real and intrinsic merits of the…

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Henry H. Meacham, a former carriage-maker in Massachusetts, joined the 32nd Massachusetts Volunteers; his arm was blown off by a shell near Petersburg in June, 1864. He printed and sold this pamphlet to make a living for himself and his ailing wife.…

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The injuries and amputations of Civil War soldiers fostered a booming industry in the manufacture and marketing of artificial limbs. The Salem Leg Company—Dr. Edward Brooks Peirson was the president of its board—achieved early prominence due to its…

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The manual's introduction states:

There is no particular class of wounds, injuries, or diseases, for which pensions are granted. It depends not so much upon the wound, injury, or disease itself, as upon the disabled condition arising therefrom. A…

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After his older brother, Henry Pickering Bowditch, enlisted, Charles, then finishing his sophomore year at Harvard College, sought his father's permission to do the same. When his request was refused, Bowditch wrote, "The country must be aroused to…

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Alfred R. Glover's body was brought back to Massachusetts and buried in Forest Hills Cemetery. His wife, Mary Louisa Bodge Glover, died on September 10, 1864, of phthisis, though according to Henry A. Willis, historian of the 53rd Regiment, she, it…

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Bowditch writes:

I write this to send by a waggon train that is going to Rappahannock Station tomorrow morning. They might just as well send us too if there was any one to take the responsibility of it but the comfort of 100 or so wounded men is…

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A graduate of Harvard Medical School in 1853, Zabdiel Boylston Adams enlisted in 1861, joining the 7th Massachusetts Volunteers as an assistant surgeon. He was later a captain with the 56th Massachusetts Volunteers. Adams was wounded at Orange…

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Former professor of surgery at the New-York Medical College, Abraham L. Cox resigned his New York practice at the opening of the war and became the Surgeon-in-Chief, 1st Division, 20th Corps, of the Army of the Cumberland. "Hastened by the labor and…

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An 1856 graduate of Harvard Medical School and son of faculty member, John Ware (1795-1864), Robert Ware was an inspector with the United States Sanitary Commission and later a surgeon with the 44th Massachusetts Volunteers. Nearly fifty letters…

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The wooden chess set pieces were carved by Zabdiel Boylston Adams and Fred Guyer during internment at Libby Prison in May 1864. Both were Captains in the Union army and injured and captured at the Battle of Wilderness.

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This cranium fragment is from a solider of the American Civil War. He exhibited no symptoms after injury. The wound developed into a brain abscess and the soldier died 3 weeks after being shot.
Inscription: in pencil on bottom of base: "Civil War /…

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The preparation was originally collected and mounted by the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C., most likely number 460. Army Medical Museum 460 was a gunshot fracture of the femur from an Union soldier in the American Civil War. Inscription: in…

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Inscription: "6693 12-3" Stamped on the bone in red; "6693 12-3 12" written on the underside of the base in pencil.

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This amputated head of the left humerus was excised from a soldier in the American Civil War. He was shot at the battle of Fredericksburg. The amputation was performed sometime after the injury by Algernon Coolidge and was successful. The soldier was…

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Case history: From an active, and powerful man who served as an artillerist in the American Civil War. In 1864, his hand was severely injured by the premature discharge of a cannon. It was amputated at the wrist joint. Subsequently, the forearm was…

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Case history: This radius and ulna was from a 35 year old soldier injured on July 3, 1863 at Gettysburg. His radius was fractured by gunshot and his ulna by a two inch long piece of fragmented gun barrel. The soft tissue of the soldier's arm was…

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Inscription: "No. 152" written on the underside of the base in pencil; "6780." written on a small label adhered to the bone.

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Recto: "We gave our wealth for those who gave their health for us."
Verso: "In commemoration of the great central fair for the U.S. Sanitary Commission held at Philadelphia, June 1864."

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Verso: "Blessed is the Giver. Great fair for the Sanitary Commission, New York, May, 1864."

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Jacob M. Da Costa was a Philadelphia physician who identified a cardiac phenomenon in soldiers which he termed "irritable heart."

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Gowran was treated at the Lincoln General Hospital in Washington.

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Lucius M. Sargent, an 1857 graduate of Harvard Medical School, was an accomplished draughtsman and was appointed the first artist of the Massachusetts General Hospital. At the beginning of the war, he became a surgeon with the 2nd Massachusetts…

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Inscription: "6691" written on the shaft in red; "6691" etched on the underside of the base.

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Case history:From an unidentified soldier whose arm was shattered by gunshot in mid-April 1862. Immediately after the injury fragments were removed from the arm, the ends of the fractured bone were sawed off, and fit together. After six months…

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Autograph presentation inscription "from E. A. Codman to Henry P. Bowditch" on verso

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This scapula was found or removed from an unidentified soldier injured on a Virginia battlefield in 1863.
Inscription: "984 12-3 Civil War Gettysburg" written on the underside of the base in pencil; Hand written label "984. Gun Shot Fracture."…

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An 1856 graduate of Harvard Medical School and son of faculty member, John Ware (1795-1864), Robert Ware was an inspector with the United States Sanitary Commission and later a surgeon with the 44th Massachusetts Volunteers.

Robert Ware died of…

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An 1856 graduate of Harvard Medical School and son of faculty member, John Ware (1795-1864), Robert Ware was an inspector with the United States Sanitary Commission and later a surgeon with the 44th Massachusetts Volunteers. Nearly fifty letters…

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Recto: "Abraham Lincoln born Feb. 12, 1809."
Verso: "Soldiers' fair, Dec' 1864. Springfield, Mass."

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This tourniquet was invented during the American Civil War for the personal use of soldiers. Large numbers of these tourniquets were manufactured and supplied to the war's participants.
Inscription: "Lambert S. JANY 7 1869"

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Inscription inside reads: "This medicine case is one of the articles which belonged to the late 1st Lieut. Alfred R. Glover, who was killed in battle, June 14th, 1863, at Port Hudson, La., and was afterward returned to his home."

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These instruments were used by Union Navy Assistant Surgeon and 1861 Harvard Medical School graduate Charles Thatcher Hubbard aboard the USS Unadilla during the American Civil War. The Unadilla was one of the Union's 2390 day gunboats and was…

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A graduate of Harvard Medical School in 1853, Zabdiel Boylston Adams enlisted in 1861, joining the 7th Massachusetts Volunteers as an assistant surgeon. He was later a captain with the 56th Massachusetts Volunteers. Adams was wounded at Orange…
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