National Museum of Civil War Medicine - National Museum of Civil War Medicine

NMCWM Open Thursday - Sunday

The Museum is open for walk-ins Thursday - Sunday, and by appointment only Monday - Wednesday.

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The Barton Letter Fund

Help us expand our collection of artifacts from the world-famous humanitarian Clara Barton!

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Pry House Hours

The Pry House will be open on Saturdays from June 4 to November 5 and Fridays and Sundays by appointment.

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Weekend Walking Tours

Join Museum Docents for walking tours of Downtown Frederick every Saturday and Sunday April - October at 2:00 PM.

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Divided by Conflict.

Three sites, thousands of stories.

National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum

Pry House Field Hospital Museum

Upcoming Programs

Weird Wounds and Surgeries–Livestream

October 5 @ 1:00 pm

Join Museum staff members John Lustrea, Kyle Dalton, and Tracey McIntire as they share true stories of weird wounds suffered by Civil War soldiers.

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Photo of the Pry House taken September 1862 by Alexander Gardner. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Guided Tours of the Pry House Field Hospital Museum

October 8 @ 1:00 pm

Join the National Museum of Civil War Medicine for guided tours of the Pry House on Antietam National Battlefield every Saturday at 1:00 PM from June 4 through October 29.

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Frederick MD 1862-Civil War Medicine & Clara Barton Museum

One Vast Hospital – Civil War Walking Tour in Downtown Frederick

October 8 @ 2:00 pm

Walk in the footsteps of doctors, nurses, and civilians who cared for 8,000 wounded soldiers in Downtown Frederick with Museum docents

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Whether students or seniors, our unique group tour experiences are for you.

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Discover History Firsthand

Take a closer look at artifacts that reveal how history was made.

From Our Blog

Disaster at the Allegheny Arsenal

September 26, 2022

What caused the worst industrial accident in the Civil War?

The Many Woundings of General John Brown Gordon, CSA

September 13, 2022

General John Brown Gordon’s Civil War story is one of incredible survival.

Zabdiel Boylston Adams, Surgeon

September 6, 2022

Learn about Dr. Zabdiel Boylston Adams, Civil War surgeon

Opium Eaters and the Civil War

August 16, 2022

Learn how the use of opium to treat Civil War soldiers led to many cases of addiction

“Dead in the Sands of the Sea” – The Story of Carrie Cutter

August 2, 2022

Learn about Carrie Cutter, the first female nurse to die during the Civil War.

Dr. William Hammond, Surgeon General

July 18, 2022

Learn about Surgeon General William Hammond.

The Story of Camp Letterman

July 1, 2022

Learn about Camp Letterman, the largest military hospital built on the Gettysburg battlefield.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary: A Union Army Recruiter

June 20, 2022

Learn about Mary Ann Shadd Cary, an African American woman who recruited for the Union Army

“We Bury Our Dead” – The Effects of Civil War Artillery

June 8, 2022

Learn about the effects of various types of artillery rounds during the Civil War

civilwarmed

Many Civil War hospital patients required bland, e

Many Civil War hospital patients required bland, easy-to-digest foods while recuperating.

Corn mush, called "Indian mush" in the Museum's 1862 copy of “The Hospital Steward’s Manual” served this purpose.

The author warned "if the [corn] meal is stirred in dry, the mush will be lumpy.”

Image credit:
The dining room in the Citizens Volunteer Hospital in Philadelphia, 1862, Library of Congress.

#medhist #medicalhistory

In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Dr. As

In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Dr. Asa Bean rushed to care for the wounded being collected at Frederick, Maryland.

He was detailed to a makeshift hospital at the old Episcopal Church on Court Street in downtown Frederick, just a couple blocks from our museum.

In a letter to his family in Ohio in October 1862, he expressed his concerns about an ill patient:

"We have one case of small pox in this Hospital to which I called to-day the attention of the Surgeon who has the Superintendence of Several Hospitals: He Said all the Danger of Infection had passed[.] There was not any place to Remove Him & if people have done as they Should Do: been vaccinated all would be well if They had not they must suffer the consequences[.]

"This morning Monday visited medical Director & obtained an order for his Removal; it was Done while I was upstairs Gallery assisting in the Resection of an elbow joint. 13th this forenoon has been spent in vaccinating[,] have vaccinated 90."

Source:
Bean Family Papers, University of Iowa Special Collections Repository.

Image credit:
North side of the Old Episcopal Church, site of a military hospital in 1862, photographed in 2021, Jake Wynn.

#visitfrederick #vaccination #medhist #medicalhistory #getvaxxed

Happy National Coffee Day! "No article can take

Happy National Coffee Day!

"No article can take the place of Coffee to the soldier. He carries it in a little sack in his pocket and watches it as he does his scanty pay of $13.00 per month. When the weather is cold and wet and he is deprived of this favorite beverage he becomes revolutionary and almost unmanageable.

"With his daily allowance he will bear and forbear -- but without it he may rebel at any moment."

- Cyrus F. Boyd, 15th Iowa Infantry

#coffee #nationalcoffeeday

A new repro on display! Based on an original in o

A new repro on display!

Based on an original in our collection, this quinine canteen will represent one of the most important medicines in the Civil War surgeon's arsenal.

Original:
National Museum of Civil War Medicine collection, L01.2000.064.

This is Colonel Edward W. Hinks of the 19th Massac

This is Colonel Edward W. Hinks of the 19th Massachusetts, wounded at the Battle of Antietam by two musket balls. One shattered his right forearm and the other entered his navel and exited right of his lumbar vertebrae.

Treated in a nearby field hospital by Surgeon Franklin Dyer, Hinks exhibited signs of peritonitis (inflammation of the membrane lining the abdominal wall and covering the abdominal organs).

He was treated with “entire rest, morphia and cold water dressings.”

On October 12, 1862, he was evacuated to Baltimore and eventually Boston where he made a full recovery and was commissioned Lt. Colonel in the 40th US Regulars on this day in 1866.

Source:
"Photographs of Surgical Cases and Specimens. Prepared by Direction of the Surgeon General By Brevet Lt Col George A. Otis, Assistant Surgeon, U.S.A., Curator of the Army Medical Museum, Volume IV."

#medicalhistory #medhist #surgicalhistory

Stay tuned for some fun content with Historic Ship

Stay tuned for some fun content with Historic Ships in Baltimore alongside our great docent Brad Stone!