From the "Heres a Museum You Have Never Been To" Department: The National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Frederick, Maryland. Divided by Conflict, United by Compassion. The ugly reality of the cost of freedom combined with good that has been gained from this four year long, living laboratory of trauma. 1861-1865.

From the museum website:  Our main museum, located in historic downtown Frederick, Maryland, contains five galleries, over 1200 artifacts and knowledgeable docents as well as a gift shop and research facility. It is located at 48 E. Patrick Street in the Carty Building, a building that once belonged to furniture maker James Whitehill in 1832, and was the site of his undertaking business, which he sold to Clarence Carty after the Civil War.  Nestled in historic downtown Frederick, MD, considered the crossroads of the Civil War, the Museum is surrounded by eclectic museums, shops and restaurants as well as scenic vistas and numerous yearly special events.

The History

The creation of The National Museum of Civil War Medicine started as the idea of Gordon E. Dammann, D.D.S., whose collection of medical artifacts from the Civil War forms the core of the Museum’s holdings.  Dr. Dammann began collecting in 1971, and felt that a museum would be a good way to share his collection and the story of Civil War medicine with the public.   With the help of F. Terry Hambrecht, M.D.; Sam Kirkpatrick, M.D.; John Olson; the Reverend John Schildt; and Thomas Adrian Wheat, M.D., the idea began to take shape.  The Museum was incorporated in 1990, and the Board of Directors began the search for a location for the Museum.

With the support of the Governor of Maryland and the Mayor and Aldermen of Frederick City, in August 1993 the Board chose to locate the NMCWM in Frederick, Maryland.  Placing the Museum in Frederick was a strategic decision designed to attract the large number of tourists who visit the area every year.  The city is centrally located within a thirty-minute drive to five major Civil War battlefields: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Harpers Ferry, West Virginia; Antietam, Maryland; South Mountain, Maryland; and Monocacy, Maryland.  It is also near the major tourist destinations of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland.  The Carty Building, a city-owned building in the heart of Frederick’s historic district, was chosen as the site of the Museum.
Once a location was established, the board began a fund-raising campaign and hired the Museum’s first executive director in March 1994.  Local banks, the City of Frederick, Frederick County and numerous private citizens donated to the cause.  The board and staff’s efforts received a major boost when the State of Maryland awarded the Museum a $1 million challenge grant for the much-needed renovation of the historic Carty Building.
A membership program was instituted and the Museum began publishing its quarterly newsletter, Surgeon’s Call.  On June 15, 1996, the first exhibits were opened to the public.  These exhibits included dioramas, cases and informational panels on recruiting, camp life, medical evacuation, field hospitals, pavilion hospitals, and the home-front.  The displays were highlighted by a Confederate ambulance on loan from the Lincoln Memorial University, a nineteenth-century holding coffin, stretchers, amputation kits, uniforms of medical personnel, and numerous other medical and surgical items.
In July 1997, the Museum received a $1 million gift from the Judge Edward S. Delaplaine Charitable Trust, fully matching the State of Maryland’s challenge grant.  Plans for the major renovation of the building and the design and installation of new exhibits began in earnest, and a temporary location was found so that the Museum’s exhibits, store and research library could remain open to the public.
A team featuring the exhibit designers, board members and staff planned the layout and the content of the new exhibits in the renovated building.  The restrictions imposed by the floor plan of the historic structure had to be considered in the design process, but the goal of the team was to tell the story of Civil War medicine in much the same order as it would have been experienced by the soldiers themselves.  In the finalized layout, the first gallery establishes the context for the Museum by discussing the state of medicine and medical education at the beginning of the war.  The remaining galleries follow the soldiers through recruitment, camp life, the evacuation of the
wounded, field dressing stations, field hospitals, and pavilion hospitals.  The last gallery highlights specific subjects such as indigenous plants used by the surgeons, embalming the dead, the Civil War hospitals in Frederick, and a comparative look at modern military medicine.
On October 21, 2000, the newly-renovated Museum opened its doors to the public.  In addition to the two floors of exhibit galleries, the Museum features a large Dispensary Store at the front of the building, the Delaplaine Randall Conference Room on the second floor, a secure, climate-controlled collections room, and a research center and administrative offices on the third floor.

 All photos courtesy of The National Museum of Civil War Medicine