boundaries. >> respect your summer of broad and not internships, and the sector of living in your parents basement after day is not likely to be our greatest concern >> throughout this month, watch commencement speeches to the class of 2016 in their entirety from colleges and universities around the country by business leaders, politicians, and white house officials. on c-span. >> each week, american artifacts takes viewers into archives, museums, and historic sites around the country. next, we visit the national museum of health and medicine outside washington, d.c. to look at items in the civil war collection. please note some viewers may find images in this program disturbing. >> welcome to the national museum of health and medicine. i am the museum's deputy

collector. we are here today to spend a little time on a visit to the museums civil war medicine and a couple of other things to show you. the national museum of health and medicine was founded in 1862. we were known as the army medical museum. the mission of the time was to collect specimens of anatomy and send them to washington for preservation and study to improve the soldier. at the time of the civil war, the museum staff were doing the business of lessons learned. ensure those lessons with their colleagues in counterparts on the battlefield. this museum and this collection started during the war and in the early days, the museum was housed in the surgeon general's houses.

the first few artifacts are on the shelf behind the general's desk. then in a building that we know today as the rakes banks building your the white house. it wasn't until after the tragic ofnts of the assassination abraham lincoln and agents of the five of the museum moved into its first long-term residents. they actually moved into ford's theatre where they stayed about 20 years before moving to what became a national mall in a building built in the 1880's call the oldiarly red brick in a building that is now no longer there. it was in a location where the hirschhorn gallery is today. in 1968 fromved its now former location on the national mall to walter reed army medical center in washington, d.c. where it was house for about 30 years before moving to its new home in silver

spring where we are today. museum today is a museum of 25 million objects. most of those are in five major collections. collection,of the the court of the 25 million objects is in civil war medicine. that is where we are about to start today. come along. >> we are inside the civil war and we arehibit starting our exhibit in front of the school of an individual from a particular african-american regiment, stood up in 1863. we don't need to know the name of this person, but he was ace -- a soldier with the 54th massachusetts, called up in boston, and took various beforent actions

arriving at the battle of battery wagner in july of 1863. this soldier would have been with the 54th when they made their initial assault on the evening of july 18, 1863. you can see this soldier died instantly from a cannon shot from a 12 pound howitzer, fired by confederate forces marshaled inside every wagner. was killed on the battlefield. his remains were there and stayed there, weren't very properly, and he was recovered 10 or 12 years after the war which is indicated i the stained brand color of the specimen. what is particularly of import is here is the skull of an african-american union soldier

who died in service to his country, but for viewers and visitors to the museum, they may recall the movie glory with matthew broderick and denzel washington that recounts the story of the 54th massachusetts. this skull from the soldier would have been one of those characters per trade in the movie. particular interest when visitors come to the museum. the skull is near an exhibit about fragments and bullets and shrapnel where we are able to talk about those objects that caused the injury which was a must -- much concern and interest to the curators of the army medical museum at the time, as much as the skeletal remains and photographs in our documentary records -- they wanted to collect the thing that caused the injury. collected very interesting other artifacts like this breastplate mounted here. belong to alate

confederate officer who wore this on the battle of the field at the battle of gettysburg in july of 1863. he probably helped this breastplate might do him some good. as evidenced by the clear bullet holes right in the center of the breastplate and down below, this officer was killed. the breastplate failed. we made an effort to contract that i am breastplate which failed to save an officer with the small personal notebook mounted here. the story behind the notebook is such that that notebook, and you can sort of see torn at the bottom, stopped able it. we actually have several artifacts like this in the museum's collection and regularly get calls from persons interested in this type of interesting story. of interest and we thought visitors would like to see it. here it is.

along this part of our civil war medicine exhibit includes numerous examples of the modern surgical kits of the time. sawsould see amputation and scalpels and blades and scissors of all manners and types, but you would also see requisition orders. while the museum was interested in collecting the anatomical specimens and the medical documentary images, they were also interested in collecting the business of military medicine at the time. some of those are included in this part of the exhibit. we also include a particularly unique innovation. it is sometimes not well understood about how prevalent anesthesia and pain medication was during the time of the civil war. it is sometimes considered a myth that people would bite down on a bullet before having a limb

amputated due to a dramatic injury. i was never really the case. there was an ether and anesthesia was available, but one of the concerns was that it was hard to deliver this somewhat expensive medication into the system. we have on display something by a surgeon, a confederate surgeon who developed this tool which helps to deliver more of the anesthesia further into the nostril of the patient. it limited how much anesthesia was needed and they got a quicker into the nervous system. particularly neat tool. you can see it on display at the museum. it is interesting. founded by the union army on display along this wall are several artifacts from confederate surgeons from the war itself. the other object of note is this that pocket surgical kit belongs to a woman named mary walker who is a contract surgeon with the union army during the civil war.

volunteered and was discharged and volunteered again and was discharged. persisted ande was recognized for her and wasnt and service named the first woman to receive the congressional medal of honor. that award was eventually stripped of her some years later. there are differing accounts of her service. i would suspect there were some concerns about her gender and some resentment about the role that she played. eventually, it took as long -- until the carter administration. to honor was restored back marry. it is important to note that she never returned her metal. she resisted the plea to return the metal and retained until her death.

we remember her commitment and service by displaying tools that she carried when in service to the union army in 1864 on display. another element of our civil war medicine exhibit is a whole wall of the display case that has been featuring speaks means of each year of the conflict 150 years later. we featured specimens during the battle of gettysburg and in 2015, our exhibit will feature speaks means in the last few months of the civil war and so visitors should look to see that on display when visiting. so as we continue through our civil war medicine exhibit, we come across the story of captain wertz. a p.o.w. camp run by the confederate army and known for its terrible conditions and interred thousands of union

soldiers and upon their release, the stories came out about the treatments that they underwent while prisoners of war. he was accused of a number of these crimes and claimed that he could not have committed some of those crimes, because of an injury to his right arm. well, wertz was tried and convicted and his claims failed to convince a jury and he was executed. his remains showed no loss of use of any part of his arm disproving the claim he had made during his trial. but also on display are the first and second vertical vertebrae of his neck, showing

the effect of his execution. we contrast the actual specimen with the photograph of him just prior to the actual hanging. we offer that here for the public to see. these two artifacts are right near a larger examination of the study of injuries and wounds during the civil war. the museum sent out misses to medical officers and all the major battlefields and all theaters of the war with the instruction to send speaks means from their battlefield hospital to washington. they were instructed to keep detailed notes and instructed to keep with the specimen the object that caused the injury. if you look at some of those on display, you will see a mini ball or fragment tasked into the prepared specimens on display. they would come to washington packed in whiskey casks. this is prior to having been

cleaned and prepared, packed into the barrels. and where the staff would have taken them out of the barrels, cleaned them, prepared them and mounted them, and this is a good example. not only did they show the structure of the bone, you can see the missing bone but included the shell fragment that caused that injury. another good example, too, of the work that the museum did to follow individual cases is that of major general barnham and this is his hip. and the surgeon healed up the skin injuries, but put through a cord, passed it from barnham from the torso, through the hip and out the back. and you can see it in on photograph.

and he reduced the side of that cord. the injury drained out the cord and after a number of years, it went from a thick cord down to a small thread and you can see it in this great photograph. all of the work of the army medical museum was eventually coalesced into the signature publication of the late 19th century. the work became known as the medical and history of the rebellion. this is to understand the nature of battlefield medicine at the time of the war, the lessons that were learned. it tabulated the types of injuries, the efforts to repair trauma and disease and documented the work on the battlefield and tracked cases years later after the war. we actually offer part of that

for the public to see and the effort that was made to understand military medicine at the time of the civil war, that effort was never duplicated in the wars that followed, the spanish-american war. and it's an honor for us to showcase the actual publication itself matched with the carvings, the photographs, the illustrations that comprise that remain in the museum's care today. we are often asked what the long-term benefit, what did we learn, what did we understand about military medicine, about

medicine in germany because of the lessons learned during the civil war. medicine after the civil war, had a greater understanding about how to deal with huge volumes of patients. there was a better understanding of surgical treatment and the rapid need for amputation, a better understanding of infection. the end of the civil war showed a better general understanding of sanitary practices and conditions that would limit or eliminate most infections, but most military officers at the time came out of the war prepared and primed for those lessons that came just some years later at the end of the 19th century. civil war medicine also taught the army, the navy, about medical evacuation. this was a time where it became pretty clear to those involved that removing a patient from the bltfield, returning them to a treatment facility, increased their chances for recovery and returning back to some quality of life. that lesson alone and the country found itself involved in the spanish-american war and lessons applied in world war i,

just 50 years later. the story of dan fickles. he will be a familiar name to many viewers and is this specimen on display is one of the most frequently requested objects by our visitors here at the museum. dan was infamous before the war. his activities during the war elevated his stature, in a sense. and he went on to live a long life amazingly despite the events of the battle of gettysburg. before the civil war, dan fickles, as a congressman, was involved in a duel of sorts with the son of francis scott key. francis scott key's son had been engaged in a relationship with fickles' wife and he took issue and called him out on lafayette

square. fickles killed key. he made a claim, he claimed that he had become so enraged by learning of this affair, that he had become temporarily insane. the jury was convinced by his argument and he is now known as the first person not being found not guilty by by reason of insanity. he had quite a name in washington circles. after the start of the war, he talked his way into a commission and eventually was elevated to commander of the third corps and

found himself assigned to play a role in the battle of gettysburg. and a story well recounted by folks who know the gettysburg story well, he was not inclined not to follow orders and led his men ahead of the union line and suffered for it. his men were almost unilaterally slaughtered and dan himself was struck by a cannonball, similar to the one we have on display, struck into his lower right leg, requiring amputation on the battlefield. and we have on display the lower right leg. it took an interesting journey. he was aware as well a his

medical officer as the request to collect a specimen of morbid anatomy and required simms, his surgeon, to send it forward and the leg was sent in a small box, a coffin of sorts, for -- with compliments, where it was prepared by the museum staff and mounted in the fashion that you see here. but the story goes on. he would even visit the museum on the anniversary of his leg's amputation. and would bring his could hertz and cronies to see the leg on display and there are records of his visit and there is a record of a visit where he asked to see what was left of his foot. he noticed that the leg was displayed and the curator responded to the general, general, we didn't preserve that part of the speaks mean because

just this part showed unique trauma and pathology that we wanted to showcase and he didn't take that too well. so he remains here as a central part of the museum's exhibit on civil war medicine. one of the most frequently asked-for objects on display to the museum here in silver spring. in this part of the exhibit on civil war medicine, we also have on display this bone specimen on the shelf here in front of us the bone belonged to a private kung ma'am, but it's notable because this bone was something that was recounted upon in the story about it by walt whitman. he was a nurse and served in hospitals in the virginia and at some point, the museum staff was able to associate his writings

in poems and stories from that time with specimens that were held in the collection here at the museum. here's a case we are able to associate a bit of a story from walt whitman with the actual bone of a person he cared for in a hospital during the civil war itself. our final stop today is an exhibit on the assassination of abraham lincoln and features artifacts that were collected during those hours that surgeons were treating him after he was shot at fords theater and during and after his autopsy the next day. you might remember that president lincoln is shot at 10:30 on friday, the 14th of april, 1865. just a few days after lee

surrendered to grant at pap mat objection, effectively ending the civil war. lincoln is at the play and is shot in the back of the head by john will beings booth by a small lead bullet and that bullet is on display here and you can see it here in that small glass globe. the bullet was recovered the next day in an autopsy performed at the white house. in the hours after lincoln is shot, the surgeon general, joseph barnes, responds to the president's side. this is at the peterson house directly across the street from the theater. he calls for a probe and mounted that in the back here on display. the idea with the probe is it would be threaded into the wound with the idea depending how far into the wound the probe would go might identify where the fragment or bullet was.

they weren't able to do so. the bullet, they found later, ended up being lodged behind lincoln's right eye. but the probe is part of the exhibit we have here on display. the surgeon general barnes and army medical museum staff john woodward and another surgeon named edward curtis were at the president's bedside in the hours before he died, which was 7:22 the next morning, april 15, 1865. it was decided that a post mortem would be performed and the president's body was moved to the white house and the autopsy was performed in a room that is today one of the president's dining rooms in the second floor of the residence. it is during that autopsy that

the bullet is recovered. the skull would have been removed. the top of the skull would have been removed fl lincoln's head and the stories are that dr. curtis held the skull over a china bowl and made a sound. and according to his notes and the notes of others in the room, there was a pause, a moment of silence and with that sound of the bullet in the china bowl is the only sound making any noise at that exact moment. curtis reflects on it saying, this is a lead ball for which we can't yet measure the call hitous effect. and some fragments were retained by surgeons who assisted at the autopsy and in some cases, it was stuck on dr. curtis' tools and as he was cleaning the

tools, he found a bit of lincoln's skull fragments, stuck in one of the saws. we also have on display a bit of hair removed from the site of the wound. several locks of hair are counted for in the notes in the hours before lincoln died. these are just a few of those that were cut and given away to different people. another object that is on display relates to dr. curtis. a surgeon on the staff of the

army medical museum is the assist ants at the autopsy. when he got home that night, the 15th of april after the autopsy, he discovered that his undershirt sleeve cuffs were stained with the blood and mrs. curtis cut those off and put them in an envelope and this is one of those two shirt cuffs. just this one is on display. many of these objects had an interesting and diverse history. the bullet was used at the trial of the conspirators. the fragments of bone and hair were in the care and holdings of others for many others and most were collected in the early 1950's by an army museum curator and have been on display for many decades. 2015, will mark the 150th anniversary of the assassination of the president abraham lincoln.

we hope you enjoyed the visit and the artifacts to the assassination of president lincoln. it is important for us to share these artifacts that convey the lessons and history of military medicine from 150 years ago and that is the inspiration for much of the work that the museum does today to carry on that legacy of military medicine on and we hope you will consider visiting the museum when you are in the washington, d.c., area. >> watch this or other american artifact programs at any time by visiting our website. c-span.org/history. >> this weekend on the presidency, author jean couples and talks about dwight d. eisenhower's behind the scenes

mentoring of ronald reagan. the formeres of -- president in reagan's political evolution in the 1960's. here's a preview. followed mike's advice. reagan made eisenhower seem of common sense in the first letter that ike advised him to do twice as his actual campaign theme in 66. eisenhower admitted he had been studying reagan and did not view reagan as an extreme right-winger. he was well within the broad tenet of modern republicanism. he actually ended up advising reagan on polling to emphasize northern california in his campaign for the governorship. to bring in his primary opponent, the former mayor of san francisco, to bring in his supporters into reagan's campaign. twice, dwight eisenhower health ronald reagan fight false charges of being an anti-semi. eisenhower meant toward reagan on speech delivery. this is a well-known speaker and

actor, ronald reagan. eisenhower actually critique some of his speeches and reagan thanked him. again, he should seek out democrats and independents and in my opinion, this is the true origin of where reagan democrats began. eisenhower public endorses reagan and donates to the campaign. watch the entire lecture on sunday at 8:00 p.m. on american history tv on c-span3. >>, a panel of scholars discusses influential conservative thinkers of the 20th century including writers ts, russell kirk, and peter furyk. the panel was part of a daylong symposium at grand valley state university in grand rapids, michigan. it is about an hour. let's move forward in time to mith