The Military Health System Blog
Infectious Disease on Display
Posted by: Health.mil Staff
Infectious disease is on display this fall at the nation's medical museum, with the recent installation of "OUTBREAK: Plagues That Changed History," an exhibit of artwork depicting the impact of disease on human history.
OUTBREAK will be featured in a limited engagement through Jan. 22, 2010, at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, a Department of Defense museum located on the campus at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. NMHM is open to the public and admission is free.
The OUTBREAK exhibition is based on a book of the same name by Bryn Barnard, who writes in the book's introduction, "whether fast or slow, epidemic, pandemic, or endemic, these infectious diseases can force enormous, sometimes cataclysmic changes on societies. They can reshuffle power, serve the greater good, or solidify the status of the ruling class. They can determine not just who lives and who dies, but who wins and who loses, who gets wealthy and who stays poor, which ideas become popular and which ones wither away. Without epidemics, ours would be a very different world indeed. OUTBREAK is the story of epidemics that have transformed human society."
The exhibit features paintings that illustrate key moments in world history by educating the visitor on the impact certain epidemiological disasters have had on shaping human population and world civilization. The exhibit includes original paintings partnered with maps and text from the book, as well as several unique artifacts from the Museum's national medical collections.
OUTBREAK focuses on the medical and social impact of six epidemics: how the Black Death in the 14th century created ideal conditions for the rise of capitalism; how smallpox stacked the deck in favor of nascent European colonialism; how yellow fever helped end the trans-Atlantic slave trade and how wave after wave of 19th century cholera epidemics created the modern city; how tuberculosis catalyzed the development of the welfare state; and how the H1N1 Spanish Influenza of 1918 shaped the outcome and aftermath of the first World War.
The National Museum of Health and Medicine is an element of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), which collaborated with the museum in 1998 to highlight AFIP's work to recreate the genetic structure of the 1918 influenza virus. A virtual exhibit features the story of the team of scientists whose efforts improved our understanding of that devastating pandemic and provide useful tools for further tools to combat influenza today.
Reservations are not required to visit the museum. The National Museum of Health and Medicine is open daily (except Dec. 25) from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Admission is free and limited parking is available. Adults seeking to visit the museum are required to present valid government-issued photo identification to gain entry to Walter Reed, and will be asked to present identification again at the museum. Vehicles are subject to search when visiting Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
For more information, use the links below.
National Museum of Health and Medicine Web site: nmhm.washingtondc.museum
Information about OUTBREAK at NMHM: nmhm.washingtondc.museum/exhibits/outbreak/outbreak.html
OUTBREAK news release: nmhm.washingtondc.museum/news/infectious_disease.html
NMHM virtual exhibit: "Closing in on a Killer: Scientists Unlock Clues to the Spanish Influenza Virus": nmhm.washingtondc.museum/exhibits/1918killerflu/1918_killer_flu1.html
Profile of Maj. Walter Reed: nmhm.washingtondc.museum/about/curator-reed.html
