Returning Loaned Artifacts

As most people may or may not know, the National Museum of Civil War Medicine has a vast collection of Civil War Medical artifacts that extend beyond those currently on display.  Some items we display have been loaned to the museum and additionally, we also loan items out to other museums and historic sites.  It is a great way to build partnerships, to help fellow museums, and to showcase our name and artifacts.

Kyle, helping to put away some of the returned artifacts.

When the exhibits have run their course the items are then returned and then they start the process of coming back to the museum’s collection.

 And they move down these hallways where we store all of our old exhibit panels.

Items cannot simply be placed right back into the collections room. The first step is to place them into quarantine.  The reason for this is to ensure that items have not been exposed to materials that may cause damage to the artifacts in the collections room.  The most common concerns may include bugs and mold.  While the artifacts are in quarantine, they are checked for anything that could damage not only themselves but other artifacts.

The cart on the right has boxes filled with returned artifacts.

Once the artifact's time in quarantine is up, they can return to the collections room, into the storage drawers where they are housed.  This procedure was followed last week with items that were out on loan, and with the items that came back from our location at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum, which closes down for the winter months.  This procedure is not limited to those items that leave the building, but also with artifacts that come out of the collections within the exhibits here at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.

The Fitzpatrick items were some of the artifacts on display at the Pry House.

What is great about this process is not the paperwork, but that you can see in one room how awesome the collection is in its entirety.  There is everything from splints to books, from amputation kits to a Civil War Condom.  It is very fascinating to see these artifacts that are well cared for by the staff at The National Museum of Civil War Medicine.

The sword returned from the Fitzpatrick exhibit.

Thomas Frezza

 Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, except where otherwise noted.

A new frontier: The first Skype outreach for the museum

On Tuesday, January 13, 2015, the National Museum of Civil War Medicine took another step into the future of outreaches.  Tom Frezza conducted a Skype outreach with students from Sioux City, Iowa.  They were from a career academy where 11th graders interested in the medical field study American History and English through the medical lens.

Tom was able to talk to them for about an hour about the museum, and the history of Civil War Medicine, and why it still matters today.  Using reproduction items, photos, and demonstrating techniques, the students were able to learn about operations, ambulances, and Dr. Johnathan Letterman.

By doing outreaches using technologies like computers with Skype, the museum is able to branch out and connect with students who may not have the means to visit the museum in person.  This offers a great opportunity for the interpreter and the students to maintain a face to face dialogue, even though they may be hundreds of miles apart.  The students were able to ask some great questions and Tom was able to respond and use reproduction items just like with a traditional outreach.  He was not only able to talk about the items, but hold them up to the camera, and students were able to see them in real time.

This type of outreach has great potential.  Students from all across the country will be able to learn the truth about Civil War Medicine and how it still affects them today.  And instead of using reproduction items, the National Museum of Civil War Medicine has the ability, with advanced notice, to bring artifacts out of the collections room to help tell the story.  Items that even the general public cannot see!

So, if you would like to schedule a Skype outreach for your classroom, please contact the National Museum of Civil War Medicine at:

Tours and Bookings

Katie Reichard

301-695-1864, Ext. 1010

bookings@civilwarmed.org

Thomas Frezza

 Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, except where otherwise noted.

Life in Camp

Though our first thoughts of Civil War soldiers are probably of them in battle, the reality is that they spent much more time in camp than in battles.  So, in addition to their uniforms and weapons, they needed items for life in camp.  At the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, we have an exhibit which is dedicated to these items.  Let’s take a look at some of the things from the Everyday Life of a Soldier exhibit. 

This display contains some typical items which would have been used by the soldiers in camp.  Many of them were probably brought from home, but others could have been sent by their families, or even purchased from the sutlers that followed the armies.

Most of the soldiers were far from their homes, so it is not surprising that many of them carried pictures of their families.  Though the little girl in this carte-de-visite is not identified, no doubt she had a proud father who carried her picture.  CDV on loan from the collection of Robert Gearinger.

Soldiers often wrote letters while in camp, and looked forward to receiving letters from home as well.  This letter was written by J.B. Foster from a camp near Fredericksburg to his brother in Rhode Island.  In this letter he asks for money, socks, and medicine for dysentery.  Diarrhea and dysentery were unfortunate parts of camp life as well, but I’ll save that topic for another post!  Letter on loan from the collection of Mark Quattrock.

Civil War soldiers usually only had one uniform, though sometimes they had extra clothing items from home, like these socks.  Their clothes took a lot of wear, so another item commonly found in camp was a “housewife,” or small sewing kit, for repairing their clothes.  You can read more about these kits here.  Socks on loan from the collection of Gordon Dammann.

Soldiers in camp used candles or small oil lamps for light at night.  Do you recognize the candle holder here?  Bayonets were very useful items to have in camp.  They could be stuck into the ground and used as a candle holder, or as a tent stake, or for picketing a horse.  They made a good pry bar, knife, can opener, or even a meat spit.  Bayonets were really the Civil War version of a multi-tool!

Camp life could be boring, and reading a newspaper, book, or Bible was a common pastime.  Some soldiers even kept diaries of their time in service.  This is a diary kept by a surgeon – you can read more about it here.  Diary on loan from the collection of Cathie Deadrick.

Soldiers also needed personal care items with them in camp. Shown here are a small mirror, a shaving mug and brush, a straight razor and strop, a small comb, and a washbasin.  Pictured artifacts on loan from the collection of Gordon Dammann.

Other camp pastimes including smoking and drinking.  Cigarettes were not very common; cigars and pipes were the most popular form of smoking at the time.  Alcohol was usually not allowed in camp, but often the men found ways around this restriction!  Pictured above are a ginger beer bottle, whiskey flask, a twist of leaf tobacco, two cigars, and a pipe.

     I hope you’ve enjoyed this small glimpse into the camp life of Civil War soldiers!    

Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, except where otherwise noted.

Originally published by Lori Eggleston
Guardian of the Artifacts

A Few More Missing Soldiers Artifacts

  This weekend I took some artifacts out to the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office in Washington DC.  While we do have the space open to the public on weekends, we’re still raising funds for display cases and a security system for the building.  Until then, we cannot put any long-term artifact displays there.  I was able to take a few artifacts out for a specific tour though. 

     A group of teachers from around the country came to the CBMSO with a tour from Brightspark Travel. On their tour they heard about Clara Barton’s life in Washington DC, and her work in forming the Missing Soldiers Office.

Here, Tom tells some of our visitors about Clara Barton’s private room. 

 

We also now have an area for our visitors to take selfies – complete with a writing desk similar to the type Clara Barton would have used, reproductions of the Missing Soldiers Office forms she sent out to families, and a life-sized cut-out of Clara!

     The members of the tour were also able to view a few of the artifacts which were found in the building.  The teachers on the tour seemed very interested in them, and I enjoyed being able to tell them a little more about the artifacts.

     All the items I took to display were found in the building – most of them packed in boxes in the attic.  Some of the boxes contained items which belonged to Clara Barton, while other boxes belonged to her friend and landlord, Edward Shaw.   

On display were a portfolio of envelopes from a writing set, a man’s slipper; the original tin sign Clara Barton posted on the front of this building to advertise her Missing Soldiers Office; a bent Enfield rifle bayonet which could have been used as a pry bar or could have been part of her relic collection from Andersonville Prison; and two socks which she was probably having mended to send back out to the soldiers.

Here you can also see a small steel sewing thimble and a portion of conserved gas line from the building.  Also on display was a panel from a wooden crate, addressed to the Commissioner of Patents.  On the opposite side it is labeled "Shaw", with the address, "488 1/2 7th St. over Steens." It is likely that Clara reused such crates to send supplies to the soldiers on the battlefields.

     The artifact display was quite popular!  I’m looking forward to the time when we can have artifacts on display out there more permanently!  In the meantime, the CBMSO will be closed starting November 24, 2014 through January 15, 2015 and will reopen on January 16th.  We’re also planning a re-dedication of the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office in the spring of 2015.  I hope you can come out for a visit!  

Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.


Originally published by Lori Eggleston
Guardian of the Artifacts

Antietam Arm on Display

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may have seen my previous posts about the mummified arm in the National Museum of Civil War Medicine’s collection.  It is a mummified right hand and forearm which was found on the Antietam Battlefield after the battle.  It is also clearly not amputated, but was traumatically separated, probably by a projectile.  We’ve learned quite a bit about the arm in the past two years, so we can finally share the Antietam Arm’s story with our visitors.

     It’s actually pretty interesting to follow how we discovered more about the arm.  We started with the history which accompanied with arm when it was donated.  You can read that story here.    

     We had quite a few questions about this story and about the arm, so we had some tests run on it at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.  It was a fascinating visit that you can read about here.  

     One of the most common questions I get about the arm is whether it belonged to a Union or Confederate soldier.  It seems that when the arm was displayed at another museum several years ago, some people speculated that it was Confederate because of its “nice manicure!”  I wanted a more scientific basis for a determination of his origin though!

Though some may have though this was a neat manicure, there are not actually any fingernails left on the arm.  The nail beds are still so clear that they give the impression of fingernails. 

     While the arm was being examined and tested, I did a little more research into the story about the doctor.  It’s a pretty interesting story in itself that you can read here.  

     However, I also noted that there was an issue with the dates in the story.  Dr. Gaines was supposedly given this arm about 6-7 months after the Battle of Antietam.  That would be sometime in the spring of 1863.  Dr. Gaines was not practicing in the area until 1866.  It may be that the arm was first given to his father-in-law, Dr. Smith, and then passed to him after they went into practice together, but we have no proof of that.  This is one of several problems with the arm’s original story.

     It was the test results which gave us the most information about the arm.  It was examined using stereozoom microscopy, CT scan imagery, digital radiography, and chemical and isotopic testing.  We’d originally been told that the arm likely came from a young male of about 19 years, so we knew he was probably a teenager.  However, it was determined that he was actually only about 16 years old.  Though this would have been rather young for a Civil War soldier, we do know that there were underage boys who lied about their ages and enlisted.  

     Bone measurements yielded the information that he was slight of build, and was only about 5’ 2” tall.  The discovery of two small arm hairs provided the information that he was Caucasian and probably had brown hair.  Dirt on the ventral (lower) portion of the arm showed that the arm had been in contact with the ground at some point, but the relative absence of dirt on the dorsal side suggested that the arm had not been completely buried.  This part does seem consistent with the story provided to us.

A digital radiograph of the arm shows that none of the bones are missing or broken.  There is no evidence of trauma other than the arm being separated at the elbow.

     Next, a small fragment of tissue was analyzed for the presence of any salts, chemicals, or toxic metals.  We were all eager to discover what chemicals had been used to preserve the arm.  I was especially interested, as this information would affect how I handled and stored the arm.  It was quite surprising to learn that there was no chemical evidence of any salts in the arm.   That ruled out the part of the story about the arm being put into a brine solution.  There were also no traces of arsenic, mercury, or lead in the arm.  This is another contradiction to the story; the arm was never put into any sort of solution to preserve it.  It dried out and mummified naturally.

     So, you might ask now if it’s even possible for a severed arm to mummify naturally in the conditions after the Battle of Antietam.  According to the report we received from the NMNH, natural mummification occurs when the body tissues are desiccated through dehydration.  Basically, dry environmental conditions help to promote mummification.  The time required for natural mummification varies depending on a number of factors, but can be well advanced by the end of just a few weeks.  Given this information, we wanted to check the weather conditions in the area after the battle.  Fortunately, this information was reported in the book, “Sounding the Shallows: A Confederate Companion for the Maryland Campaign of 1862" by Joseph Harsh. The weather conditions in this area were fairly warm and dry immediately following the battle.  The temperature ranged from 44 – 79 degrees F and there were only two incidents of precipitation recorded for the month of September, both of which were less than a quarter of an inch.  So the conditions in the area could have been right for natural mummification. 

The arm’s position gives us some information as well.  For one thing, the positions of the hand and arm are not consistent with standard burial practices.  The skin folds and contours indicate the arm was positioned with its ventral surface (forearm and palm) down for at least several weeks.

      The next big question was the origin of the arm’s owner.  Was he local or did he come from somewhere else?  If he was a soldier, was he Union or Confederate?  Isotope analysis was performed on another small sample of tissue.  Basically, this test indicates the diet and source of water of the individual, which can point to a general area of origin, but not a single state.  The results showed that he most likely came from the Pennsylvania / New York / Ohio region, with a smaller possibility of the mountainous Appalachians of Maryland and Virginia.  He had a mostly wheat-based diet, which was more common in the northern U.S.  A bone phosphate oxygen reading also helped to place his “meteoric water” reading in this area.  

     So, we had the mummified arm of a northern 16-year-old boy, which had been traumatically separated from him, but which had dried out naturally.  We also had a story which was mostly debunked.  Where do you go from there?

Other local stories exist about this arm, though of course none can be proven.  The stories do seem to have some intriguing similarities though.  According to several sources, the arm was found either on a stone wall or on a stony outcropping on the Antietam Battlefield.  So the battlefield is a common theme to the stories, along with the arm being found above-ground.  The Burnside Bridge (Library of Congress image) is cited as the place of discovery in several of the versions.  In addition, some versions of the story have the name of the town doctor who owned the arm as a Dr. Fahrney.  There was a Dr. Daniel Fahrney in Hagerstown, Maryland in the late 19th century, so that is a possibility.  That is a subject which will require more research.

     So, what is the conclusion here?  Though we’ve gained a lot more information about the arm, we’re also left with more questions about it.  We can’t prove that it belonged to a Civil War soldier, but the possibility isn’t disproven either.  We do know that it represents an injury which was typical on a Civil War battlefield, and we can display it as such.  It can bring a more human element of the story of Civil War medicine to our visitors.  It is one thing to read or hear a story about the wounds suffered and the lives lost on the battlefields.  It is quite another to see actual evidence of it.  We also know that this arm belonged to an unidentified teenaged boy, and we can honor his memory, and his possible sacrifice at the Battle of Antietam, by sharing as much of his story as we know.   

The Antietam Arm is now on display in the Field Hospital gallery of the NMCWM.

     You can view a video clip of the arm on display at the NMCWM here.     

Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, except where otherwise noted.


Originally published by Lori Eggleston
Guardian of the Artifacts

The Loss of a Friend

Everyone here at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine was saddened last week to learn of the passing of Elizabeth “Bettie” Delaplaine.  She was one of our museum’s benefactors and artifact donors, but more importantly, she was an avid supporter of our museum and staff members. 

Bettie is near the center in this photo, next to her husband George, who is cutting the ribbon for our museum’s new store opening in 2013.  It’s just not a true museum event unless the Delaplaines are here!

     In memory of Bettie, I would like to feature a few of the artifacts she donated to the NMCWM over the years.

A small tin oil lamp with a metal cap is currently on display in our Everyday Life exhibit as an example of an item which a Civil War soldier may have had with him in camp.  It measures just 2 inches tall and is 4 1/4" in diameter, so it would have been easy to pack and transport.

This is a hand-drawn, color ink drawing of three Confederate flags, the Stars and Bars, the National Flag of the Confederacy, and the Confederate Battle Flag. The handwritten caption gives an explanation of each flag.  It is initialed “W. J. L.” 

A black and white photographic copy of a Civil War soldier's original pen and ink drawing is currently on display in our final gallery.  It is titled, "United States General Hospital, Frederick, MD, from 1862 to 1865."  It depicts six pavilion wards and six tent hospitals. In the distance are soldiers marching up Market Street, and the clustered church spires of downtown Frederick. 

My favorite of Bettie’s artifact donations is this maple four-poster slat bed from the Civil War period.  It is currently on display at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum, in the Richardson Room.  

     You can see that Bettie Delaplaine’s donations have certainly benefited our museum, and they continue to help us tell the story of Civil War medicine to our visitors.  We would not be here without her, and we will miss her greatly.

     You can read more about Bettie Delaplaine here.

Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.

Originally published by Lori Eggleston
Guardian of the Artifacts