8.31.2005

My Favorite Medical Museum

Around here, the proposed military base closings are big news. But the one that caught my attention was back in DC, the recommendation to close Walter Reed Medical Center.

It's the home to one of the oddest museums I've ever visited — the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Preserved organs in jars, artifacts of Lincoln's assassination, and Dan Sickle's leg. One of the first places I went to when I first moved to DC (it had recently been featured in the Hartford alt newslweekly), and sadly, never made it back to. Definitely a one-of-a-kind institution. There was talk of moving it down to the Mall; there, I fear, it would be moderninzed and sanitized for public consumption, and lose its weird appeal.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

To read more about Dan Sickles I recommend reading 'AMERICAN SCOUNDREL The LIFE of the NOTORIOUS CIVIL WAR GENERAL DAN SICKLES' by Thomas Keneally.
A good read about a politician who got away with murder, literally. He also played an important part in the creation of Central Park. Book was given to us by Bram.

Mel said...

Bram - I'm a little nervous that you have a "favorite medical museum" - it's seems just a little too Crispin Glover.

AJ said...

Here's some museum info. Another odd DC item--Southeast's BIG chair was recently pulled down :(