This microscope, manufactured by Joseph Zentmayer in 1864, was used by Joseph J. Woodward of the Army Medical Museum to make his pioneering series of photomicrographs. (M-030 00390)

To make a photomicrograph, Joseph J. Woodward placed a mirror outside a window. Sunlight reflected off the mirror and through a microscope, which then projected the image onto a photographic plate.

Woodward created this photomicrograph. It shows a portion of the ulcerated small intestine of Joshua Jackson, patient at Freedman's hospital who died of tuberculosis on October 8,1866.

Joseph J. Woodward served at the Army Medical Museum from 1862 to 1881. Before his work in photomicrography, scientists made drawings to record their observations through the microscope. Now they could take photos.