Beginning today through June 18, the DMU Library will host an exhibition of the U.S. National Library of Medicine titled “Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine.” Part of our library’s commemoration of the Civil War’s sesquicentennial, the exhibition looks at the men and women who served as surgeons and nurses during the war and explores how their service challenged the prescribed notions of race and gender. The exhibition was developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, with research assistance from The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
According to the exhibition’s website, the Civil War was “a fight for freedom and a chance for full participation in American society. As all Americans sought ways to participate and contribute to the war effort for the Union, African Americans moved beyond the prejudices they faced to serve as soldiers, nurses, surgeons, laundresses, cooks, and laborers. Their participation…pushed the boundaries of the role of blacks in America.”
In addition, DMU Library will feature a display about Colonel Arthur Latham Conger, a Civil War veteran and founder of the Dr. S.S. Still College of Osteopathy (now DMU). Colonel Conger became an advocate for osteopathic medicine after suffering a stroke; he claimed that it saved his life, and his wife even became an osteopath in order to care for him.
Enjoy these opportunities to explore an extraordinary era in America’s history!
