edward curtis, a surgeon on the staff of the medical museum was an assistant at the autopsy. when he got home that night, the 15th of april, after the autopsy, he discovered that his undershirt sleeve shirt cuffs were stained with the president's blood. and mrs. curtis cut the shirt cuffs off and put them into an envelope, which they signed and endorsed, and this is one of the two shirt cuffs. both shirt cuffs are in the museum's holdings. just this one is on display. many of these objects had an interesting and diverse history. the bullet was used as evidence at the trial of the conspirators. the fragments of bone and hair were in the care and holdings of others for many years and most were collected in the early 1950s by an army medical museum curator named helen purdle and for the most part have been on display for many decades. it's important to note that 2015 will mark the 150th anniversary of the assassination of president abraham lincoln. we hope you enjoyed this visit to our exhibit on civil war medicine and the artifacts related to the assassination of abraham lincol

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 about 7:22 the next morning, the 15th of april, 1865. it was decided then that a postmortem would be performed very quickly and the president's body was removed to the white house and the autopsy itself was performed in a room that today is the -- one of the president's dining rooms on the second floor of the residence. it's during that autopsy that the bullet is recovered. the skull would have been removed, the top of the skull would have been removed from lincoln's head and as the story is recounted by dr. curtis, dr. curtis lifted the brain out of the skull and held it over a china bowl and the bullet fell into the china bowl and made a tinkling sound and according to curtis' notes and 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 really the only sound makian

a few examples of the serendipity are edward curtis. only 21 years old, born in boston, father well-to-do physician, harvard grad, cambridge student. he joined herbert hoover's aid, which then led right to the crb. he became the first courier for the crb, and he was the first non-executive delegate to enter belgium on november 1. when i say courier, there had to be a courier from holland into belgium. that courier became a very important part of the process. frederick w. meert was in belgium when the war broke out. he started november 12, took charge of the brabant province. he is the only delegate who started and ended in the same position in the entire delegation. one other person, this guy i want to have a beer with. i love this man. e.e. hunt. e.e. hunt was 29 years old, he was an old man compared to a lot of the men. he was a harvard grad, on the staff of american magazine, he has survived the fall of antwerp, and he had walked with the refugees from antwerp into holland. he had heard about the crb from the holland in the the staff

a few examples of the serendipity was edward curtis. father, well-to-do. harvard grad. he joined the aid to the tourist, which let to the crb. he became the first courier for the crb. he was the first non-executive delegate to enter belgium. there had to be a courier from holland to belgium, back and forth all the time. the courier was an important part of the process. frederick was in belgium when the war broke out. he took charge of a province, and i believe he might be the only delegate who started and ended in the actual same position through this entire operati operation. the other place from which -- excuse me. this guy i want to have a beer with. i love this man. e.e. hunt. he was 29 years old, old man compared to others. he had been on the editorial staff of american magazine. he was a freelance war correspondence. had gone over to cover it. he survived the fall of antwerp and walked with the refugees from antwerp into holland. he heard about the crb from the holland staff when he was researching other articles. on the 24th of november, he entered belgium to fin