gunshot wound or in this particularly unique case here, evidence of a man who was in a car wreck, did not seek medical attention and died ten days later and the medical examiner found -- as you can see in the specimen on the shelf -- the evidence of a hemorrhage which eventually claimed that man's life. so as you move through the exhibit gallery and as the exhibit progresses we then deal with surgical response to tbis, but that gives us a chance to talk about the historic efforts. on display are two pre columbian peruvian skulls, these are now hundreds and hundreds of years old showing evidence of something called thefanation it's an effort 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. we then give the visitor a chance to see the types of tools used. at the end of the exhibit an opportunity to see the types of tools used for modern tpi 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've come to the third of the three exhibit galleries here at the medical museum and we've moved here to an exhibit on biomedical engineering which features this artificial kidney. the kidney here was invented by a dutch physician who developed this technology in nazi occupied holland and the first generation of this device was built using scrap parts from downed german

airplanes and left over kitchen utensils. when dr. kolf moved to the united states he developed this generation of the device and the artificial kidney we have here on display was used at 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 to if you can imagine, a device like this, similar now to what we would use for pretty routine dialysis treatment, was used for similar types of kidney conditions during the korean war and traveled with a mass unit treating soldiers during the war itself. the rest of the exhibit features things that might look familiar to visitors, especially anyone who might have had a knee replacement or hip replacement or a prosthetic inserted in

their shoulder. something you don't often see are actual heart valves. so a display of those here gives us a chance to know what it looks like before it's inserted into you, but compare that to an actual human heart, it's in that wet tissue preparation there, and 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. for a visitor remember to compare this to an exhibit in another gallery on normal human anatomy. what you see here are actual human specimens showing rare and unique conditions, mostly some genetic and metabolic conditions, including this specimen here, peter clubbingy, who at the time of the spanish american war was diagnosed with a rare and severe form of

rheumatoid arthritis and upon a very close examination you will see that his giants are all fused and where there should be space between his vertebrae, there is no space. another interesting item, part of cluky's specimen is noticing that his teeth and jaw looked like they were opened up. after peter's jaw fused they opened up his teeth there and broke some of his teeth out to that mr. cluky could ingest today foods. this was the only way that he was able to consume anything in those last years of his life. another thing to note about peter cluky's specimen is 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, peter cluky died in the 1920s, some bones were taken for study so the replicas were put in place, but that still gives us a chance to see in the knee giants, the spine and the jaw very clearly the fused giants and imagine a little bit about what it might have been like for peter at the >> peter clubbingy lived out the rest of his life sitting up like this or lying on his side and died and willed his remains to the army medical museum so that his body could be studied for science. he has been sitting in various iterations of this museum pretty much just like that in that chair for many decades and he is just part of this exhibit on human pathology, which includes some very unique specimens.

examples of things that we don't see very often anymore, including the effects of smallpox, you can see that on these two feet here. or the effects of lep ross si or he will fan tie a sis or a mega colon, a condition where the colon grew outside of the body. we also feature specimens such as a section of a smoker's lung, an enlarged heart that is sectioned so that you can see the condition of the plaque buildup inside of the heart itself, a unique specimen, a human hair ball on display showing in the shape, urge clee removed from a girl who was 12

years old who went on to live a happy healthy life, but you can see it formed in the shape of a stomach. another unique specimen is also a section of a lung of a soldier who died of the influenza pandemic that killed 50 million people around the world in 1918 and 1919 and that's just a few of the interesting pathological specimens on display. >> we are now at an exhibit on forensic identification and the sciences involved in determining a positive scientific identification on missing war dead. we start with the story of colonel scharff. in the early 1990s a small piece of bone was found at a crash site. while it was thought to be

colonel scharff there was a positive identification because of dna matched from the bone was matched with dna recovered from love letters that colonel scharff had licked the envelopes of and sent to his wife during the war decades earlier. that dna proved a positive match so that helps tell the story about the role that dna plays today in a modern forensic identification. and includes this early thermo psych clear used to amplify dna recovered from ancient bone materials and as the exhibit goes on we talk about the importance of forensic anthropology, the use of dental evidence and the role of the medical examiner and collateral the arms forces examiner in developing the protocols and practices and procedures in a modern scientific identification

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 lech learned from the wars in iraq and afghanistan is that the -- too many soldiers were -- lives were lost because of the -- not having the right tool to reinflate the lung on a battlefield. so treat a collapsed lung. the medical examiner was able to determine that by adding to the medic's kit a longer pneumothorax needle, the medic in the field had a better chance of being able to quickly reinflate a lung and allow that soldier a chance to get to the next level higher trauma treatment center. so what we have on display, the early models of the pneumothorax

needle and that developed based on the data of all those lives that were lost. the medical museum is home to one of the world's largest collections of micro scopes. it was started in the 1880s by our curator who set about to collect representative examples of the technology at the time. one of those includes this microscope by robert hook, an employee of the royal society, to used this microscope to observe the cell for the first time. this example gives us a chance to talk about the history of science and why it's important to recognize that the -- this one device helps change the nature of observation of the natural world around us and for us this stands as one of the oldest objects in the collection, but also gives us a chance to reflect on one of the most important moments in the history of science in general.

finally, we are here in an exhibit that commemorates the history of the army medical museum and what we now now today as the museum of national health and medicine. on display are a range of artifacts that commemorate or 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, looks like a cigar-shaped box. the visitor that comes to the museum can look carefully down through the top. what they would see are mic stone slides and the sectioned biopsied tissue from the throat of president u police ease grant. that tissue is of the cans that are eventually took his life and the pathologist who prepared the slides also put them into this special keepsake box of sorts

and it was -- eventually made its way to the museum's hold js and has been part of our display since this iteration of the museum opened in 2012. it shares some display space with a very interesting anatomical specimen, it's three vertebrae from the lower part of the spine of president james garfield. james gar field shot in july of 1881 while he was going on a train and what you see is the red rot of the path of the bullet. garfield died some three months later not necessarily as a direct result of the bullet that -- path that you see there, but of infection that was caused for the most part by not -- sterile practices not being performed by the physician who was managing his care. you might recall the pathology

exhibit that we looked at earlier, which included that human hair ball, the tricobezor and other specimens of note. in display in that case is also the spleen of the assassin of president james garfield, a man named charles gateaux who was called and tried and executed but it was found later that he was actually dying of malaria, so the spleen actually doesn't say anything about charles gateaux but it is a remarkable specimen showing the effects of malaria on that particular or began. the rest of the exhibit case has many objects on display but a few others of note. standing in the back of the case, the reese's monkey skeleton is of an early american astronaut, her name was able, she flew into space in 1959 and

was part of the series of animals that nasa and the space program sent into space to test the early era of the space program and able unfortunately died shortly after her return from space during a surgery to remove the electrodes that were used to measure her vital signs during her flight in space. along the back wall are four dental tools. these tools are attributed to paul ref veer. paul revere who we know from his midnight ride through the country to warn the colonists about the advancing british forces also did some interesting work as a dn tis and these tools were used by revere and we think were probably related to work that he did on a man named joe warren. he was a colonial leader and

fought and died at the battle of bunker hill. as the story was told revere helped identify warren's remains from a mass grave of those killed in bunker hill and did so because he had done some work on joe warren's jaw and teeth in the years before warren was killed. >> so a unique feature for our visitors who come to the museum here in silver spring is a chance to see through the looking glass as it is into a working museum laboratory. this special lab was equipped to help us prepare and manage the wide range of artifacts in the museum's care. what you see on the counter there now is a set of human remains, anatomical specimens, bones, that are laid out on the counter there and museum staff person doing some lab work in

preparation of dealing with some objects in conservation, but we could use this lab to manage paper materials, other types of tissue or to prepare objects for long-term storage or for exhibit or display. so our last stop on our visit to the medical museum is here in front of one of the museum's storage rooms where we manage our growing 25 million object collection. you can see just a few of the paintings in the museum's holdings here in the row behind me and the large painting there features our -- the museum's founder surgeon general william hammond who founded the museum in 1862. one thing that i personally find important about working here at this museum is the stories that we tell are the stories of america's soldiers, sailers, air

men and marine -- and marines. it's important to share the sacrifices that they made for doctors and researchers and innovators to be able to help convey their stories and glad to be able to share that with visitors who come to see us every day here at the museum. >> this was the second of two programs from our visit to the national museum of health and medicine, the first focused on the museum's civil war collecyou can watch all of our american artifacts programs in their entirety by visiting c-span.oval/history. >> on sunday, october 25th american history tv will feature an oral history project with the former chair of the naacp julian bond who died in august. he talks about his involvement with the student nonviolent coordinating committee in his later political career. one of several oral histories from the yoofrt of virginia

exploration in black history project. sunday at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span 3. >> each week american artifacts takes you to museums and historic place toss learn what artifacts reveal about american history. just down pennsylvania safe from the white house is the white house visitor's center which offers a look at how the executive mansion functions, both as an office and a home. we toured the center with curator william all man who shows us the desk franklin roosevelt used while broadca broadcasting his fireside chats and recreational items such as radios and bowling balls for the first families. >> my name is john stand witch and i am the lisa son to the white house and i'd like to we will come you to the white house visitor's center which is located a short walk away from the white house itself. for anyone going on a white house tour it will help them

understand what they're seeing and bring much more context and meaning to their visit to the white house. for those who can't go on a white house tour this is really an experience in its own right as well. so you are here in the white house visitor's center which is theme at clee based around five different themes to understand the white house story. it is a home, so it's obviously home to the first family, it is an office for the president, it also, too, is a stage that we as a nation, we celebrate great events there, obviously state arrivals, events as well take place there like the white house easter egg roll. it is also, too, a park. it is part of a national park and we are proud as a national park service to consider it as such. and also, too, it is a museum pause the white house collection is inside the whitehouse and that helps to tell the story of the first family's connection with the structure and also to

the story of our nation alongside it. located directly behind me is a scale model of the white house. it is really the centerpiece of the white house visitor's center and it is an amazing tool to understand the white house. both from an architectural standpoint because you very rarely if ever can understand the whole totality of what the white house s you can see the main part of the house but also, too, it's wings as well. you can do a 360 degree walk around the white house and see the construction of it and see really one of the most important historic objects in our nation, the white house, and understand its story much more, plus with the advent of technology we have touch screens where you can actually go inside the rooms and see them, see the objects in them, and then also explore them lieu the various centuries that the white house has been here.

>> i'm here today in the white house visitor's center. we're going to take a look at some objects that have been lent from the permanent collection of the white house for exhibition here as part of the new and vastly improved white house visitor's center that opened last fall. we're standing next to a mahogany desk. im it dates to about the time that the white house opened in 1800. the government was still in philadelphia when construction began on the white house in 1792 with the goal of moving the federal government to the new capital city and it's new quarters and the capital and the president's house. so construction went on until 1800. john adams moved to the city as the first president to occupy the new president's house. george washington had picked the site, picked the architect,

supervised construction but was out of office and passed away by the time the government came to philadelphia. the job he gave to picking the architect to both designing and building the president's house went to irish born architect james hoban who he had met in charleston, south carolina, and he thought he was a very practical builder so he gave him the job of constructing the white house. towards the end of that period obviously there were some building materials left over and so according to family history the hoban family history, this small desk which isn't the most elaborately designed piece of furniture that we have in the white house collection, but it was reportedly built by hoban himself out of mahogany that was left over from the construction of the floors and the windows and the doors of the what'ite house. so it's not made of material that has been removed from the

building, it is simply surplus materials of the same type that was being used in the construction of the house. so it has not been in the white house collection but for the last 40 years, it was donated in the 1970s by a member of the family with the history of having been associated with hoban and his completion of the house. hoban was also part of the white house again in 1815, having stayed in washington, he was given the job of reconstructing the burnt out white house after the war of 1812 when the british marched into the city and set fire to the public buildings, including the president's house. he was still in washington in 1823 when he added the south portico to the white house and 1829 when he started adding the north portico to the white house and it was completed in 1830 and he pass add away. he left an enormous architectural footprint both in terms of the original house, it's rebuilding and addition of

two enormous porches on the north and south side. the basic form is late 18th century federal style furniture with the simple tapered legs, inlays used as cuffs, inlays used as decorative element across the bottom, a fold out writing board and little slides to support it. in fact, it also has hidden section behind the top that can be locked. so in many cases a desk would have been a little bit bigger and perhaps had book shelves above it, but this one was a small and relatively comfortable piece. not atypical, just not as fence i will made perhaps as high style would have been done in new york or philadelphia. >> so now we will leave our james hoban desk of 1800 and take a look at some furniture that dates to a later period of white house history.