National Museum of Health & Medicine: A Graphic Education

Call it a walk-through version of a human anatomy textbook and a fairly graphic biological version of American history, the National Museum of Health and Medicine is the real thing. There's no holding back on the foundations of life and death – and a real test whether your child has a future career in medicine. Housed at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the National Museum of Health and Medicine is a wonderful composite of historic body parts nobody else knew what else to do with – as well as a fascinating study of these famous items.

While the museum does not aim to be a freak show, it does house many of these historic artifacts related to medicine and health. It has been compared to the famous Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. The museum began during the Civil War as an Army Medical Museum and research center collecting specimens for study of military medicine. As the years progressed, it began to collect other items, including the bullets removed from wounds and amputations, also for study. The pieces were all maintained at the museum and put on display. It went through several names, including the Medical Museum of the Institute of Pathology, the Armed Forces Medical Museum, and finally the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Want to see Abraham Lincoln's skull and hair fragments that blew off when he was shot? Or the bloody shirt cuff of the doctor who tried to save him? How about five pieces of tattooed skin from a World War II concentration camp, saved for proof during Nazi war trials? Or the leg that Major General Daniel E. Sickles mailed to the museum after he was wounded at Gettysburg during the Civil War?

You'll also find a giant hairball, or trichobezoar, successfully removed from a 12-year-old girl's stomach, on display (plus an entire exhibit dedicated to the subject of hairballs). There are also several examples of elephantiasis, including a severed leg in a jar, and a skeleton belonging to an individual whose joints fused together.

There are also thousands of bones from the Civil War, a documentation showing the effects of gunshot wounds, a collection of microscopes through the years, surgical instruments, a collection of embryos, and a display of human growth from embryo to age five (through photos, slides, models and some specimens).

HelloWashingtonDC Tip: The museum is complex and has a lot of ground to cover, but visitors typically leave enlightened. It's not exactly child-friendly material, although it simply states the facts of life. But consider your individual child's temperment in determining whether to bring him/her along. Many school groups tour the museum. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged.

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