Washington - National Museum of Health and Medicine

Located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the National Museum of Health and Medicine was established during the Civil War as the Army Medical Museum, a center for the collection of specimens for research in military medicine and surgery. In 1862, Surgeon General William Hammond directed medical officers in the field to collect "specimens of morbid anatomy . . . together with projectiles and foreign bodies removed" and to forward them to the newly founded museum for study.

Today the museum features exhibits on the human body, Civil War medicine and military medical history. Visitors can see the world's largest collection of microscopes, an early X-ray of the human body and General Daniel Sickles shattered leg bone. The museum's most famous artifacts relate to President Abraham Lincoln and his assassination on April 14,

1865 by John Wilkes Booth. On display is the bullet fired from the Deringer pistol which ended the President's life, the probe used by the US Army Surgeon General to locate the bullet, pieces of Lincoln's hair and skull, and the surgeon's shirt cuff, stained with Lincoln's blood.