chapter 1
The Roots of Excellence, 1862–1882

[Opposite] Brigadier General William Alexander Hammond, 

surgeon general of the US Army, 1862–1864, founder of the Army 

Medical Museum, which became the Armed Forces Institute of 

Pathology. Hammond was 33 years old at the time of his appointment. His selection over officers who were his seniors in age, rank, 

and experience was due in large part to the recommendation 

and persistent pressure by officials of the US Sanitary Commission (an unofficial but government-sanctioned organization that 

functioned in much the same way as today’s American Red Cross), 

who were impressed by the tireless energy and administrative ability Hammond demonstrated in the organization and operation of 

hospitals in Maryland and Virginia. (MIS 61-4774)
 

| 3

SStarting out as little more than three dried and varnished specimens placed on a 

shelf above an ink stand on a desk, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, like 

most institutions that achieve excellence, was guided by a visionary—someone 

who saw a critical void to be filled; someone committed to improving the health 

and well being of the nation’s military, and ultimately its civilian population as 

well; someone who could envision a future of life-saving discoveries based on 

detailed anatomical and disease research, and a centralized institution devoted to 

such research. The roots of the Institute, eventually a world leader in pathology 

consultation, education, and research, date to May 1862, when a visionary 

Army surgeon general, Brigadier General William Hammond, issued orders 

to establish the Army Medical Museum. The museum’s mission: to collect and 

properly catalog all specimens of morbid anatomy, both medical and surgical, that 

had accumulated since the commencement of the Civil War in the various US

hospitals, or that were retained by any of the medical officers of the Army.

First located in a room in Hammond’s office in Washington, DC, the museum 

moved three times in its first 2 years of existence: first to the old Riggs Bank 

Building at the corner of President Place (now Pennsylvania Avenue) and 15th Street NW, then to 180 Pennsylvania Avenue; and then to what was known as “Mr. Corcoran’s School House” at H Street NW between 13th and 14th Streets. 

There it stayed until 1866, when it moved to Ford’s Theatre, which had been 

renovated following President Lincoln’s assassination.
4 | Armed Forces Institute of Patholo gy, 1862–2011

The challenges of multiple moves were complicated by political struggles with Army and 

congressional leaders as the early curators were repeatedly forced to make the museum’s 

case for relevancy and funding. Indeed, differences between Surgeon General Hammond 

and the secretary of war threatened the museum’s continued existence. Major John Brinton, 

the first curator, argued strongly for the museum’s value, writing to the acting surgeon 

general: “It is unnecessary for me to urge upon you the value of our National Medical 

Museum. Its claims to usefulness are recognized by the civil profession throughout the 

country and it is by them weekly and almost daily considered. The cabinet as it stands 

is not a mere Museum of curiosities. It is a collection which teaches. It is practical,” 

he continued, “and has already powerfully influenced for the better treatment of the 

wounded soldier.”1(p21) Brinton’s arguments prevailed and the museum’s immediate future 

development and growth was secured.

As was common among museums in the 19th century, the Army Medical Museum 

functioned as a reference collection, with open storage on display. Groups of gunshotdamaged bones, arranged by body part, filled shelves of the exhibit cases like an array of 

books on a specific theme. Specimen labeling was minimal, and printed catalogs were 

provided for consultation. Labels were written to be understandable by doctors. 

The material collected by the museum during the Civil War was primarily used to produce 

the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion.

2

 This project set the tone for 

the museum’s public and professional outreach for nearly 30 years. A systematic, statistical 

compilation of the types of injuries and diseases a military doctor could expect to treat, 

the multivolume history contained 6,000 pages, weighed 56 pounds, and took 26 years to 

finish; the final part was published in 1888. Its publication filled a critical void in medical 

knowledge, and its painstaking attention to detail served as the standard for museum 

publications for decades to come. The specimens collected for the preparation of the 

history, whether shattered bones or diseased organs, were cataloged, studied, and displayed 

to the public in the Army Medical Museum. And the books purchased in support of the 

research formed the foundation for the Surgeon General’s Library, and eventually the 

National Library of Medicine. 
The Ro ots of Excellence, 1862–1882 | 5

Opened to the public on April 16, 1867, the museum drew about 6,000 visitors by the end 

of the year. Mary Clemmer Ames, writing in a guidebook in 1874, felt, “It cannot fail to be 

one of the most absorbing spots on earth to the student of surgery or medicine; but to the 

unscientific mind, especially to one still aching with the memories of war, it must remain a 

museum of horrors. No! The museum is very interesting, but can never be a popular place 

to visit.”3 In spite of Ames’s concerns, by 1874 the number of monthly visitors sometimes 

reached more than 2,600.

By 1876, the 10th year of the museum’s residency in Ford’s Theatre, the surgical collection 

contained 6,539 specimens; the medical section 1,279; the microscopical section 7,275; the 

human anatomical section 1,254; the comparative anatomical section 1,522; and the section 

for miscellaneous articles, 2,400.

The primary emphasis remained on preserving specimens illustrative of the wounds and 

diseases that produced death and disability in the military, with the purpose of reducing 

mortality and alleviating suffering among soldiers. But slowly and steadily, the museum’s 

curators and researchers had been moving beyond this collection mission. Pioneering 

work was performed in microscopy, resulting in the use of aniline dyes for staining 

microscopic slides, one of the most important basic techniques of the pathologist. This 

was complemented by groundbreaking work in photographing objects visible under the 

microscope—another indispensable tool of present day pathology.

As the museum neared its 20th year, General Hammond’s original vision of a museum 

collection that would “embrace all forms of injuries and diseases, so that eventually it would 

become a general pathological museum, accessible for study to all medical men who are 

prosecuting original inquiries,”1(p65) was becoming a reality. And by 1882, the Army Medical 

Museum—with its roots of excellence firmly established—was poised to pursue a path that 

led to the establishment of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. n
6 | Armed Forces Institute of Patholo gy, 1862–2011

As t h e Civi l War b e g an the need for creation of the Army Medical Museum 

was clear to General Hammond, who was keenly aware of the lack of knowledge on 

surgical and medical problems facing the US Army. As would be expected, at that 

time medicine was still what would now be considered primitive. The Union Army 

did not even have an ambulance, and it wasn’t until the second year of the war that 

Dr Jonathan Letterman developed a standard procedure for removing the wounded 

from the battlefield. Most doctors trained by short apprenticeships, and medical 

schools consisted of two years of instruction that would now be undergraduate work. 

Bacteria and viruses were not recognized as the cause of disease, and vague particles 

called “formites,” which emanated from unhealthy areas or infected material, were 

thought to be the cause. Few sanitary measures were instituted, so camps were foul 

places. Blood typing and transfusions did not exist and the discovery of penicillin and 

antibiotics was 80 years away. Although surgical instruments did exist, they weren’t 

always available and doctors often had to resort to extracting bullets from wounds by 

reaching in with their fingers and cleaning out the bullet and any other loose material. 

They then wiped their hands on their clothes and went on to the next case.

[Opposite] Posed amputation scene depicting the 

use of anesthesia, the widespread use of which was 

documented in the Medical and Surgical History 

of the War of the Rebellion. (CP 1563)

[Top Left] Amputation of third, fourth, and fifth 

metacarpals: Private Robert Fyer, Company G, 52 

NY Infantry Regiment. (CP 1041)

[Bottom Right] Remains from amputations 

following a Civil War battle. (CP 1043, “Field Day,” 

cropped)
The Ro ots of Excellence, 1862–1882 | 7
8 | Armed Forces Institute of Patholo gy, 1862–2011
The Ro ots of Excellence, 1862–1882 | 9

In this circular dated May 21, 

1862, Surgeon General Hammond 

announces his intention to establish the Army Medical Museum. 

(MIS 62-2214)

[Opposite] Ward in Armory 

Square Hospital, Washington, 

DC. (CP 2241)
10 | Armed Forces Institute of Patholo gy, 1862–2011
The Ro ots of Excellence, 1862–1882 | 11

Ear ly h o m e s of the Army Medical Museum. 

[Opposite] The first home of the museum, Riggs Bank Building, Pennsylvania Ave. and 15th St, NW, 1862–1863. (Reeve 32783)

[Bottom Left] The second home of the museum, 180 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, 1863. (Reeve 32780)

[Bottom Center] The third home of the museum, Corcoran Schoolhouse, 1325 H St, NW, 1863–1866; 

engraving by HH Nichols, a member of the museum staff, circa 1863. (Reeve 32789)

[Bottom Right] The fourth home of the museum, Ford’s Theatre, 511 10th St, NW, 1866–1887. (Reeve 32782)
12 | Armed Forces Institute of Patholo gy, 1862–2011

[Left] Major John Hill Brinton, US Volunteers, first curator of the Army 

Medical Museum, 1862–1864. Most units during the Civil War consisted 

of volunteers from the individual states, but individuals who were brought 

into service at the federal level, such as Brinton, were referred to as “US 

Volunteers.” (MIS 63-85-2)

[Right] Major General Joseph K Barnes, surgeon general of Army for 18 

years, 1864–1882. General Barnes carried forward much of the program 

initiated by General Hammond. (MIS 53-14501-1)

[Opposite] This group of US Army medical officers includes several who 

became prominent in the history of the Army Medical Museum and the 

Library of the Surgeon General. Standing (left to right): Lieutenant Colonel 

William G Spencer, Assistant Surgeon Alfred A Woodhull, Surgeon General 

Joseph K Barnes, Assistant Surgeon Edward Curtis. Seated (left to right): 

Assistant Surgeons George A Otis, Charles H Crane, John S Billings, and 

Joseph J Woodward. (Woodward 3944)

At t h e tim e of hi s appoin t m e n t as the museum’s first curator, 

Major John Brinton had been a teacher of anatomy at the Jefferson 

Medical College in Philadelphia and had served with General Ulysses 

S Grant during the western campaign of the Civil War. Embracing his 

new duty of collecting specimens and diseased tissues for the museum, 

Brinton personally visited field hospitals after the battles of Antietam, 

Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg. He also issued detailed 

instructions to medical officers for forwarding pathological objects to the 

museum, including bony specimens and wet tissue preparations following 

amputations or operations. Specimens were to be labeled, numbered, 

wrapped in cloth, and immersed in a keg or small cask of diluted alcohol 

or whiskey. When filled, the cask was to be forwarded to the Office of the 

Surgeon General.
The Ro ots of Excellence, 1862–1882 | 13
14 | Armed Forces Institute of Patholo gy, 1862–2011

The first catalo g of the museum was simply a 

numerical list of the objects in the collection, with no attempt 

to classify the various injuries or describe in detail the 

preparations included. Of the nearly 1,000 surgical specimens 

listed, all but a handful were the result of gunshot wounds, 

and the vast majority of these were caused by the conoidal 

bullets widely used by both sides in the Civil War. Egg-shaped 

with an indentation behind the penetrating head, designed to 

expand when the gunpowder combusted and engage the barrel 

rifling, these bullets were particularly accurate and lethal. Few 

American surgeons at the time had experience with gunshot 

wounds, and fewer still had seen wounds from conoidal bullets. 

The bullets themselves were also collected by the museum, 

eventually forming the largest collection of conoidal bullets in 

the world. Other categories of specimens included pathology 

caused by diseases such as typhoid fever and “Chickahominy 

diarrhea” (named after Chickamauga National Park, where 

60,000 soldiers were encamped in 1863 amid a high prevalence 

of camp fever). The catalog was highly illustrative of the effects 

of military action and camp conditions upon the life of soldiers 

during the Civil War. 
The Ro ots of Excellence, 1862–1882 | 15

[Opposite] A collage of two images from the Catalogue of the United States 

Army Medical Museum (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 

1866–1867), as printed in Henry RS, The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology; Its First Century, 1862–1962 (Washington, DC: Office of the Surgeon 

General, Department of the Army; 1964). The specimen shown is listed as 

No. 76 in the catalog. (MIS 62-733-4)

[Bottom] General Sickles and [Top] his leg bones. General Sickles, commanding 

general of the 3rd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, was wounded at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. As a result of the efforts of museum staff, specimens arrived 

regularly during the war, particularly after great battles, but this specimen arrived 

unsolicited. Packaged in a small, coffin-like box, and bearing the visiting card of 

the donor with the message, “With the compliments of Major General D.E.S.,” 

was the general’s amputated leg. This personal donation testified to the growing reputation of the Army Medical Museum. The general’s bones are still on 

display in AFIP’s National Museum of Health and Medicine. (Woodward 6202; 

Woodward 3861)
16 | Armed Forces Institute of Patholo gy, 1862–2011
The Ro ots of Excellence, 1862–1882 | 17

[Opposite, Top and Bottom] Early “dry” exhibits in 

comparative anatomy, which included skeletal remains 

of various mammals, birds and reptiles, as well as “wet” 

specimens, which were preserved in liquid and enclosed 

in glass. By 1871, the surgical section of the museum 

consisted of about 6,000 mounted specimens, the medical 

section had 1,150 specimens, the microscopical section 

contained more than 4,000, and the anatomical section 

included nearly 1,000 human skulls and skeletons.The 

majority of the surgical specimens came from military 

surgery, although non-military surgical cases were also 

being added to the collection. (Woodward 1856-A; Woodward 1856-B; MIS 62-2966-1)
18 | Armed Forces Institute of Patholo gy, 1862–2011

By the 1870s the Museum had not only become a major attraction in 

Washington, DC, it was also becoming a focus for the intellectual and scientific life of 

the city. The fortnightly meetings of the city’s Philosophical Society, the oldest scientific 

society in Washington, were held at the museum, and the charter meeting of the 

Cosmos Club was also held there. When the American Medical Association met in the 

capital in 1868, the museum was the scene of a reception hosted by the surgeon general. 

A similar courtesy was extended to members of the National Academy of Sciences in 

1870. 

The most melancholy mission assigned to the museum in its early years occurred when 

doctors Joseph Woodward and Edward Curtis were assigned to perform the autopsy 

on President Lincoln. The two pathologists were summoned to the White House at 

11 am on April 15, 1865, with the task of removing the bullet fired into the president’s 

head by assassin John Wilkes Booth. After describing the condition of the wound and 

surrounding tissue, their report traced the course of the bullet, which entered through 

the occipital bone about an inch to the left of the median line, and just above the left 

lateral sinus, which it opened. It then penetrated the dura mater, passed through the left 

posterior lobe of the cerebrum, entered the left lateral ventricle and lodged in the white 

matter of the cerebrum just above the anterior portion of the left corpus striatum. Both 

orbital plates of the frontal bone were fractured, and the fragments pushed up toward 

the brain.

Museum pathologists also performed the autopsy on President James Garfield when he 

was shot and fatally wounded in 1881. The autopsy disclosed the course and location 

of the fatal bullet, which had entered the president’s back about 4 inches to the right of 

his spine, broken the eleventh and twelfth ribs, passed through the first lumbar vertebra, 

grazed the splenic artery, and stopped behind the pancreas, about 10 inches from the 

point of entrance. 

[Top and Opposite] Main exhibit hall, Ford’s Theatre 

building in the early 1870s. (Reeve 32786) 
The Ro ots of Excellence, 1862–1882 | 19
20 | Armed Forces Institute of Patholo gy, 1862–2011
The Ro ots of Excellence, 1862–1882 | 21

[Opposite] This sketch, made by Hermann Faber immediately after the removal of 

President Lincoln’s body from the house in which he died, was approved for accuracy 

by Surgeon General Joseph K Barnes. Faber was a staff medical artist at the museum. 

(Accession no. 29719)

[Left] Bullet from the body of President Garfield, located during autopsy. 

(Woodward 7082)

[Right] The bullet that ended President Lincoln’s life, the instrument used to locate it, 

and bone fragments that adhered to it. Both the bullet and instrument are on display 

today at AFIP’s National Museum of Health and Medicine. (MIS 62-1021)
22 | Armed Forces Institute of Patholo gy, 1862–2011

[Top Left] Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Woodward, Medical Corps, who had been hired by Brigadier General 

Hammond to work on the Medical and Surgical History, pioneered the use in the United States of aniline dyes 

for staining microscopic slides and creating photomicrographs, in the mid-1860s. During independent histological studies of fever and diarrhea among soldiers, Dr Woodward began using the newly discovered aniline dyes to 

stain tissue, so that certain parts became more visible under the microscope. While the idea of staining specimens 

to stand out was not new, the unstable nature and limited range of colors of most of the vegetable and animal dyes 

available had limited their use. In 1865 Woodward published a paper in the American Journal of the Medical 

Sciences called “On the Use of Aniline in Histological Researches With a Method of Investigating the Histology of 

the Human Intestine and Remarks on Some of the Points To Be Observed in the Study of the Diseased Intestine in 

Camp Fevers and Diarrheas.” Dr Woodward had identified and developed one of the central techniques of modern 

pathology. (NCP 3608) 

[Top Right] Major Edward Curtis, US Volunteers, who collaborated with Dr Joseph Woodward in photomicrography in the mid–1860s. (Woodward 3659)

This Joseph Zentmayer microscope 

is one of those issued by the Surgeon General’s Office at the time 

the Army Medical Museum was 

established, and used by Dr Woodward to make photomicrographs. 

The model was introduced in 1862 

for use by US Army hospitals and 

was produced until 1876. (MIS 

60-4713-76)
The Ro ots of Excellence, 1862–1882 | 23

In t h e s e ear ly ph o to mic r o g raph y e xpe rim e n t s by Curtis and 

Woodward, the source of illumination was the sun itself, ingeniously harnessed to 

ensure a perfectly steady and intense light. The room in which the photography 

was to be taken—darkened so as to dispense with a light-tight bellows—became 

the “camera,” with a window facing south as the “shutter,” through which the direct 

rays of the sun, caught in the mirror of a heliostat mounted outside the window, 

were reflected upon the plane mirror of a microscope mounted horizontally just 

inside the window. From the mirror, the reflected rays of the sun were thrown 

upon the object to be photographed, placed upon the stage of the microscope. 

Light passed through the barrel of the microscope to the object-glass, where it 

was magnified. The magnified image was brought to a focus upon a sensitive 

photographic plate, mounted on a stand that was moved back and forth along 

a 10-foot track, which was provided with a scale for measurement of distances 

from the microscope. Pictures were taken by opening an aperture in the light-tight 

shield fitted on the window. These first photomicrographs were nearly as accurate 

and detailed as those taken a hundred years later. Further experiments by the two 

doctors successfully employed electric lights and magnesium lamps.

References

1. Henry RS. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology; Its First Century, 1862–1962. Washington, DC: 

Office of the Surgeon General, Department of the Army; 1964.

2. Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. Washington, DC: Office of the Surgeon 

General, Department of the Army; 1870–1888.

3. Clemmer M. Ten Years in Washington: Life and Scenes in the National Capital as a Woman Sees 

Them. Hartford, CT: AD Worthington & Co; 1874: 477.

Lieutenant Colonel George A Otis, second curator of the 

Army Medical Museum, 1864 to 1881. Under Otis’s leadership, the stupendous task of compiling and writing the 

Medical and Surgical History came close to completion. In 

May 1877 Dr Otis suffered a stroke; he passed away 4 years 

later, at the age of 51. He was succeeded by Army Surgeon 

David Low Huntington, who served as the museum’s third 

curator, from 1881 to 1883. (MIS 05-6764-3)
24 | Armed Forces Institute of Patholo gy, 1862–2011
The Ro ots of Excellence, 1862–1882 | 25

[Opposite | Top] A photograph and drawing of the equipment used in the Army Medical Museum’s pioneering photomicrography, mid-to-late 1860s. In these early photomicrography experiments by Curtis and Woodward, the source of illumination was the sun itself, ingeniously harnessed to insure a perfectly steady and intense light. The room in which 

the photography was to be taken—darkened so as to dispense with a light-tight bellows—became the “camera,” with a window facing south as the “shutter,” through which the direct 

rays of the sun, caught in the mirror of a heliostat mounted outside the window, were reflected upon the plane mirror of a microscope mounted horizontally just inside the window. 

From the mirror, the reflected rays of the sun were thrown upon the object to be photographed, placed upon the stage of the microscope. Light passed through the barrel of the microscope to the object-glass, where it was magnified. The magnified image was brought to a focus upon a sensitive photographic plate, mounted on a stand that was moved back and 

forth along a 10-foot track, which was provided with a scale for measurement of distances from the microscope. Pictures were taken by opening an aperture in the light-tight shield 

fitted on the window. These first photomicrographs were nearly as accurate and detailed as those taken a hundred years later. Further experiments by the two doctors successfully 

employed electric lights and magnesium lamps. (Woodward 1580; Reeve 72508) 
“As the Army Medical Museum entered its third decade of 

service to the nation, its shelves, cases, and storage rooms 

housed an ever-expanding collection of skeletal remains, 

mounted surgical specimens, anatomical examples, medical 

instruments, and volumes upon volumes of literature.”