really learn about the history of the country and evolving rights of america. cooperation with the national constitution center delving into supreme court cases that significantly influence our evolvingstory and are understanding of rights in this country. beginning october 5 on c-span and c-span3. as a companion to our new series , a book features the 12 cases series.ted for the by tony mauro. cases is available for a dollars $.95 plus shipping and handling. eight dollars $.95 plus

shipping and handling. to look at items spanning over 150 years of existence. civil war collection. some viewers may find images in this program disturbing. mr. clarke: hello, and welcome to the national museum of health and medicine. my name is tim clarke and i am the museum's deputy director. we are here to give you a short tour of the highlights of the museum. it was founded in 1862 as the army medical museum. our mission today is very much the same. it is to collect objects that shed light on the value of military medicine and preserve the legacy of american medicine. what we will show you today are

highlights of the museum collections from the last 150 years in areas of military medicine, human anatomy and pathology, forensic identification, bio-medical engineering, and a special few artifacts we have on display here. so, come along. we start our tour today with this object, the floor of what was known as trauma bay 2 from a hospital in iraq. from 2003 until 2007, during the height of the iraq war, the hospital served as the evacuation point before soldiers were flown to germany and the united states for the next level of care. trauma bay two was where the

worst cases were treated. this helps tell the story of modern battlefield medicine and it shares that story by the deep gouges you see in the floor. if you can imagine, the gurneys being carried into the emergency room and those gurney legs being kicked into place over and over again. the yellow seems that are evident show the antiseptic, the betadine's used to clean ones before surgery. and the black stains and embedded in those gouges are the blood of the patients treated at bay two. the story that was shared with us from the caregivers at the balad hospital, this became known as the place where the most american lives were saved or lost in vietnam. it carries a special story.

we can remember so many lives that were lost, but so many lives that were saved. we are honored by visitors to this floor who are young men or women who started on the road to recovery and can trace that recovery to their time at the balad theater hospital during the iraq war and often were treated right here on bay two. as we move on through the rest of this room, that focuses on innovation in military medicine, one exhibit on display is the advances in surgical kits. we see surgical kits from the war of 1812 compared in contrast with kits from the civil war, the mid-20th century world war ii, and then kits used by

medical examiners from iraq and afghanistan. one thing to notice in the surgical kit from the war of 1812 is the knives may look to us today very much like kitchen knives or butcher knives, but these were the precise tools of that era. it's interesting to note those knives are alongside the tools used to extract bullets from injuries. one can imagine the pain that might been caused by using the tools themselves. another object, kit of note is the kit used to do a postmortem examination on john paul jones. he died and was buried in france. but in 1905, a surgeon named joseph corneal had jones' remains exhumed and used this kit to positively identify his

remains, which were then reinterred at the naval academy at annapolis, maryland. another exhibit in this gallery features advances in the protection of service members, and so we featured three helmets from different eras of the 20th century. a helmet from world war i showing the very clear path of a bullet as it passes from front to back. then from korea, again, the bullet will puncture during the helmet, but as the newer technology and materials are developed, we see the kevlar helmet from the first gulf war, and again, slowing in stopping a bullet becomes the immediate need, and this allows us to show the advances in the materials, but also the concern with stopping and preventing head injuries.

another feature of our exhibit on the history of innovation in the history of military medicine is this display on facial reconstruction. from the 20th century, the type of work being done on service members recovering today in the early 21st century. and an interesting story is that of carlton bergen, who is featured here with photographs. bergen was injured in his mouth and his palette and his nose. he was treated by a doctor in new york, who successfully treated more than 30 patients during the course of the civil war. it's not something well recognized or understood about facial reconstructions or jury during the war itself. but bergen is told through this series of photographs documenting the series of surgeries, but we also have two very unique casts done at

different times of his recovery and on display a piece of work on bergen's jaw. we not only have photographic evidence, 3-d evidence, but also in anatomical specimen all from the same individual. the cast we see here are from world war i and world war ii. some of the models you see here on display are evidence of the different stages of the surgical repair on an individual over a series of surgeries. you can see the nature of this soldier's injury prior to repair and in this case and the case below you can see how the surgeon was in leading the tissue so it created enough

tissue for an eventual use to restore that particular structure, in this case, the nose or a flap over the injured eye. these then became the teaching models of the mid-20th century. before there were ipads and on-screen technology, this was how surgeons of the era were learning and tracking an individual case as a teaching study. we compare those two 3-d stereo lithographic prints of soldiers from the war in iraq. these 3-d casts were done out what was then the walter reed medical center. if you can imagine taking cat scan data and putting them through a 3-d printer. they provide the surgeon with a real world model of that soldier's injuries.

these were soldiers injured in the war. they were recovering at walter reed, and the surgeons used these models to plan future surgeries, to learn what loans were recovered or discarded, to plan for the prophetic that might be used to reshape and protect that soldier's's call skull and then also found themselves limiting the number of surgeries and limiting the chance of infection and restoring some of the measure of quality of life. the last feature in the exhibit on the innovations in military medicine focuses on walter reed, major walter reed. walter reed, who is known for his work in the discovery of the transmission of yellow fever, identifying that mosquitoes were transmitting yellow fever, was actually a curator of the army medical museum, this museum's ancestor as it were. when he died in 1902.

we use this exhibit elements you remember the man and his particular legacy, and also the institutions that came to honor him including the walter reed medical center and the walter reed institute of research. it includes his own microscope and the guest visits of visitors who came to the author resource for during the vietnam and korea. -- korean and vietnam war. you see vip's and celebrities visiting the soldiers recovering at the hospital at that time. next, we are going to go to an exhibit on human anatomy and pathology with a special emphasis on traumatic brain injury. so, come along. we are in the second of three exhibit galleries here at the medical museum. this exhibit gallery focuses broadly on anatomy and

pathology. one piece of the exhibit features normal human anatomy. this gives us a chance to show normal human anatomical structures -- lungs, kidneys, stomachs, brains, hearts. a condition that shows what you look like on the inside when you are healthy. these are very unique specimens. they are preserved in all manner of states. with tissue plaster nation and drive mounted specimens, but the exhibit focuses on traumatic brain injury. tbi was identified as one of the signature injuries of the wars in iraq and afghanistan, so we focused the rest of this exhibit gallery to give our visitor a chance to understand the nature and functions of the brains. those technologies like the helmets here to showcase the protection of the brain on the battlefield.

but the exhibit gives us a chance to focus on actual human brain specimens showing the of real dramatic brain injuries. you see over and over again on display, sectioned or whole brains showing whether it is a hemorrhage, a stab wound a , gunshot wound, or in this particularly unique case here, -- or in this particular unique case here, a man who was in a car wreck, did not seek medical attention, and died 10 days later. you can see the evidence of a hemorrhage that eventually claimed that man's life. as you move through the exhibit gallery and the exhibit progresses we then deal with the

surgical response to tbi's. but that gives as a chance to talk about the historic efforts, and on display are two pre-columbian, peruvian skills. if you can imagine, these are hundreds and hundreds of years old, showing a something called trepanation. it is a drill to relieve pressure in the brain. we contrast these two skulls from peru with the skull of a civil war soldier showing essentially the same type of surgical treatment area we then give the visitor a chance to see the types of tools used, and at the end of the exhibit, an opportunity to see the types of used for modern tbi rehabilitation, which includes interestingly enough, video games, and the important role that service animals play in helping tbi patients recover and go about their daily lives. so, we have come to the third of the three exhibit galleries.

we move now to an exhibit on biomechanical engineering which features this artificial kidney. the kidney here was invented by a dutch physician who developed this technology in nazi occupied holland. it was using scrap parts from -- it was built using scrap parts from downed german airplanes and leftover kitchen utensils. when this dr. moves to the united states, he develops this generation of the device and the artificial kidney we have on display was used out walter reed general hospital. they purchased it because the device they had in use during the time of the korean war had to be shipped to the front to a mass unit, and as you can imagine, a device like this, similar now to what we would use for the routine dialysis treatment, was used for similar types of kidney conditions

during the korean war and traveled with a mash unit, treating soldiers during the war itself. the rest of the exhibit shows things that might look familiar to visitors, especially anyone who might have had a knee replacement or hip replacement or prostatic inserted in their shoulder. but something you do not often see our actual heart valves. the display of those here gives you a chance to see what it looks like before it is inserted in you. but compare that to an actual human heart. it's in that with tissue perforation there. looking carefully, you can see the heart valves carefully inserted into the tissue itself. we are now in front of an exhibit on human pathology, and for a visitor to the museum, remember to compare this to a visitor to another gallery on normal human anatomy. what you see here are actual

human specimen showing rare and unique conditions. you see genetic and metabolic conditions including the specimen here, peter cluckey, who at the time of the spanish-american war was diagnosed with a rare and severe form of rheumatoid arthritis. upon close examination, you will see his joints are all fused, and where there should be a space between his vertebra, there is. no space.sn another interesting item, part of the specimen here, noting his teeth and jaw look like they were opened up. after peter's jaw fused, they opened up his teeth there and

broke some teeth out so he could ingest soft foods. this was the only way he was able to consume anything in the last years of his life. another thing to note about the specimen is that the contrast between the white remaining natural bone that is in the skeleton and the yellow replica bones. over the course of all of these many decades, -- he died in the 1920's -- some bones were taken for study, so the replicas were put in place. but it still gives us a chance to see in the knee joint, the spine, the jaw very clearly the fused joints and imagine a little bit what it might been like for peter at the end of his life. peter cluckey live the rest of his life sitting up like this or on his side and died and told

willed his remains to the army medical museum so his body could be studied for science area he has been sitting in various iterations of this museum pretty much just like that in that chair for many decades. he is just part of this exhibit on human pathology, which includes some very unique specimens. examples of things we do not see very often anymore, including the effects of smallpox. you see that on these two feet here. or the effects of leprosy, also here in this wet tissue preparation. or elephantiasis. or a very unique specimen, a megacolon, a condition where n grew outside of the body. we also feature specimen such as a section of a smoker's lung. an enlarged heart, so you can

see the condition of the plaque told up inside the heart itself. a unique specimen, a trico bezoar, a human hairball on display, in the shape of a stomach. this was surgically removed from a girl who was 12 years old. she went on to recover and lived a happy, healthy life. you can see it is formed in the shape of the stomach. also a section of a lung of a soldier who died of the influenza pandemic that killed 50 million people around the world. this is a few of the pathological specimens on display. we are now at an exhibit on forensic verification and the -- forensic identification and the science that is involved in determining a positive

scientific examination on missing war dead. we start with the story of colonel charles sharp. colonel sharp was a pilot in vietnam. he was shot down rid his body was not recovered. but in the 1990's, a small piece of bone was found at a crash site. while it might have been colonel sharp's, there is no positive occasion. -- positive identification. but then eventually dna from the bone was matched with dna from love letters that colonel sharp had licked the envelope bob and --lickede envelopes the envelopes of earlier and that dna was a positive match. that helps tell the story about the role dna place today in a modern forensic identification and includes this early thermo cycler used to amplify dna recovered from ancient bone materials. as the exhibit goes on, we talk

about the importance of friends it anthropology, the use of dental evidence, and the role of the medical examiner, and particularly, the armed forces medical examiner, developing the protocols and practices and procedures in a modern scientific examination, bringing home our war dead from wars even long ago. we also feature an interesting development about the value of data collected during this long process. one thing learned, a lesson learned from the wars in iraq and afghanistan is too many to many soldiers' lives were lost because of not having the right tool to reinflate the lung on the battlefield. the medical examiner was able to determine that by adding to the

medics kit a longer pneumothorax needle, connecticut a better chance to quickly reinflate a lung and let the soldier get to the next higher level trauma treatment center. we had on display the models of the pneumothorax needle, and that is based on the data of all of the lives lost. the medical museum is home to one of the world largest collections of microscopes. it was started in the 1880's. it started out collecting examples of representative technology of the time. it included this microscope by hook a member of , the real society, who used a microscope to observe a cell for

the first time. this gives us a chance to talk about the history of science and why this one device helps change the nature of the world around us. it also gives us a chance to reflect on science in general. finally, i am here commemorating the history of the army medical museum and what we know today as the national museum of medicine. on display here are a range of artifacts that tell interesting stories from different eras of the museum's history. especially of interest are two items related to presidential health. the box on display in the back, it looks like a cigar shaped box. visitors can look carefully down from the top, and what they will

see are microscope slides. and those are sections of biopsy tissue from the throat of president ulysses s. grant. that is the tissue of the cancer that eventually took his life. they are preserved and put in this keepsake box of sorts and it eventuallmade its way to the museum holdings and it has been part of our displays since the first iteration of the museum opened in 2012. it shares display space with a very interesting anatomical specimen. it's three vertebra from the lower part of the spine from president james garfield. he was shot in july 1881 when he was going on a train, and what you see is the path of the red rod of the path of the

bullet. garfield died some three months later, not necessarily as a direct result of the bullet path you see there, but infection that was caused, for the most part, by not sterile practices not being performed by the physician managing his care. you might recall the apology -- the pathology exhibit we looked at earlier, which included that human hairball, some other specimens of note. on display in that case is also the spleen of the assassin of president james garfield, who was caught and tried and convicted and executed. but it was found later that he was actually dying of malaria, and so the spleen that is on display does not say anything about him, but it's a remarkable specimen showing the effects of malaria on that particular organ.

the rest of that exhibit case has a few objects on display. a few to note -- standing at the back of the case, the rhesus monkey skeleton is an early american astronaut. her name was abel. she flew into space in 1959 and was part of the series of animals that nasa, these program, sent into space to test early eras of the program. unfortunately she died shortly after her return from space during a surgery to remove the electrodes that were used to monitor her vital signs during her flight into space. along the back wall are 4 tools. these tools are attributed to paul revere. paul revere, who we know for his midnight ride to warn the

colonists about advancing british forces also did work as a dentist. these tools were used by revere and we think we're probably related to work you did on a man -- related to work he did on a man named joe warren. he was a colonial leader, fought and died at the battle of bunker hill. the story is told, revere helped identify warren's remains from a mass grave and did so because you done some work on his teeth before he was killed. a unique feature for our visitors who come to the museum here at silver spring is the chance to see through the looking glass into a working museum laboratory. this special laboratory is to

to care andped manage the artifacts and the museum procare. you see a range of human remains, anatomical specimens, bones, laid out on the counter there. a museum staff person will do some lab work in preparation for dealing with objects and conservation. but we could use this lab to manage paper materials, other types of tissue, or to prepare outfits for long-term display. so, our last stop on our visit is where we are managing or growing our collection. you can see few paintings in the museum's holdings here in the row behind me. the large painting their

features are museum's founder who founded the museum in 1862. one thing that i personally find important about working here at this museum is the stories we tell our the stories of american soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines -- it is important to share the sacrifices that they made.it is important to share the sacrifices they made to be able to help convey their stories. and we are glad to be able to share that with visitors who come and see us every day here at the museum. was the second of 2 programs from our visit. the first focused on the museum civil war -- museum's civil war collection. you can watch all the videos in their entirety by visiting our

website, c-span.org/history. announcer: this year, c-span is touring cities across the country. up next, a look at our recent visit to cincinnati, ohio. you are watching "american history tv," all weekend, every weekend, on c-span three. -- c-span3. ? welcome to -- mr. conzett: welcome to treasures of our military past. we have a civil war naval gun. there is a radio from world war ii, as well as the bomb site, one of the most highly kept secret of the second world war. what greets you as you walk through the door is probably without a doubt our most significant artifact in the collection. and