Discover the twists and turns that defined the invention of personal military identification tags

Lists of missing soldiers like Clara Barton’s demonstrated the need for ID tags

On Saturday November 16 at 2:30 PM at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine join researcher and docent Mavis Slawson as she presents her research on the history of military identification tags.

Fighting and war are as old as mankind. Many went off to war never to return. Families and friends seldom knew the fate of the loved one. Only the deaths of generals and influential people were ever consistently known. The fate of the common man remained a mystery. Over time, governments and families gradually became concerned about the fate of the common soldier. To address that issue, the concept of providing a means to identify the dead and seriously wounded arose. The solution was to provide markers for the soldiers to wear into battle. The history of this effort, and the result of identification tags will be covered in the presentation.

Mavis Slawson has been a docent at the National Museum of Civil War Museum in Frederick, Maryland since 2000, doing research. She has been giving lectures and presentations on Civil War medical history and Civil War quilt history in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, and Illinois. She is a Nurse and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Art.