All exhibits at the National Museum of Health and Medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are closed as of April 3 so the institution can relocate to Silver Spring, MD.

The museum, which has been at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., will reopen at the Fort Detrick-Forest Glen Annex this summer. Status updates will be available on the museum’s website, www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum, Facebook page and e-newsletter.. The relocation is a result of the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission decision to close WRAMC.

A National Historic Landmark, the National Museum of Health and Medicine was established in 1862 to promote understanding of medicine, especially tri-service American military medicine. The Museum’s new facility will include collections management space as well as public exhibitions and offices.

The move was announced in late 2009, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held last May on the 148th anniversary of the founding of the Army Medical Museum.

“One hundred forty-eight years ago to this day the Army Medical Museum was founded—not merely to examine anatomical specimens and medical instruments for teaching, but to assemble and study objects to improve the care of the wounded and sick in novel ways,” museum director Dr. Adrianne Noe said at the time. “That persistent role sets us apart from every museum and research institution in the land. The only tri-service museum, our function as a military medical research asset transcends the familiar legacy role to embrace
a collections-based agenda with a purpose that is uniquely valuable to the Department of Defense and the nation.

“But as old as we are, our orientation is squarely toward the future. We collaborate with complex research organizations and collect prospectively. We explore our collections with the tools of supercomputing. And we partner with educational organizations to help design the artificial organs and the imaging technologies of the future.”

Among the museum’s permanent exhibits is the bullet that killed Abraham Lincoln as well as other artifacts from Lincoln’s assassination, antique microscopes and old photographs of battlefield surgery.

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