Dr. Gordon E. Dammann, D.D.S.

Founder

The creation of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine started as the idea of Gordon E. Dammann, D.D.S., whose collection of medical artifacts from the Civil War forms the core of the Museum’s holdings. Dr. Dammann began collecting in 1971, and felt that a museum would be a good way to share his collection and the story of Civil War medicine with the public.

Dammann is the author of the three-volume Pictorial Encyclopedia of Civil War Medical Instruments and Equipment, co-author of Images of Civil War Medicine—A Photographic History, and editor of the reprint Memoirs of Jonathan Letterman, MD Surgeon of U.S. Army 1861-1864.
Dammann, recently retired from his private dental practice in Lena, IL, is active in several Civil War and historical societies.

He is a licensed guide at Antietam National Battlefield and has participated in Civil War programs throughout the United States, including West Point and the Smithsonian Institution.