NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE LOANS CUSTER'S LAST STAND ARTIFACT TO TRAVELING EXHIBITION

WASHINGTON - The National Museum of Health and Medicine has loaned a pocket surgical kit recovered from the site of Custer's Last Stand to a consortium of historical societies for a traveling exhibition entitled, "Beyond Lewis and Clark, the Army Explores the West."

The kit belonged to U.S. Army Lt. George Lord, the assistant regimental surgeon for Brevet Major General G.A. Custer, Lieutenant Colonel of the 7th U.S. Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The artifact was borrowed from the Washington, D.C. museum's more than 12,000 historical medical objects and will be on display July 1, 2003 to Dec., 31, 2005 in various locations across the country. According to museum records, after the Battle of the Little Big Horn the surgical kit was sold by a Native American to a trader, who in turn sold it to a relative of Lord's, possibly his brother. At that time it was missing all of the original tools except for a single probe.

It will highlight the story of the U.S. Army's role in exploring, recording, and reporting back to headquarters in the East on what they found in the West between 1803-1874, ending with Custer's Black Hills Expedition.

The museum has also loaned a clyster syringe, used to administer medication anally, and other historical artifacts for the traveling exhibition. The clyster was used in the middle of the 18th century and would have been part of the medical gear carried by Lewis and Clark during their expedition, which inaugurated a half century of western exploration led by the U.S. Army, in which Meriwether Lewis and William Clark served as captains.

"As the major conflicts come into the story, each is handled in what we call the "military parade," explaining what service in the Army at that period was like as well as some objects to highlight that part of the story," said John Listman, managing curator at the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma, Wash., a member of the consortium.

The exhibition opened July 1, 2003 at the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) in Richmond, Va., and closes there on Dec. 30, 2003. It then travels to the Washington State Historical Society from Feb. 16, 2004 to Oct 31, 2004, the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka, Kan. from Dec. 10, 2004 to Aug 14, 2005, and to the Missouri State Historical Society in St. Louis from Oct. 8, 2005 to Dec. 31, 2005.

A miniature version of the exhibition will then be placed in the Frontier Army Museum at Fort Leavenworth Kan. for 10 years. The museum's main gallery highlights the efforts of the frontier army in exploration, expansion and protection of the Trans-Mississippi West from the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the chase of Pancho Villa by Gen. John Pershing.

The Kansas, Virginia, and Washington state historical societies are co-sponsors of the traveling exhibit, in joint partnership with the U.S. Army Center of Military History at Ft. McNair, Washington, D.C.

The VHS galleries, where the exhibition will first be on display, are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $3 for students and children, and free on Mondays. Free parking is available behind the museum. For information, call (804) 358-4901 or visit their web site at www.vahistorical.org/exhibits/exhibits_future.htm. The historical collection at the National Museum of Health and Medicine documents changes in medical technology since the early 17th century and includes objects ranging in size from a suture needle to a two-ton MRI magnet, such as X-ray equipment, microscopes, surgical instruments, numismatics, and anatomical models. The collection is made available for the education of medical professionals, Department of Defense personnel, historians, and the public through exhibits in the museum, loans to other institutions, and individualized study.

The National Museum of Health and Medicine, founded as the Army Medical Museum in 1862 to study and improve medical conditions during the American Civil War, is an element of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Open daily except Dec. 25 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the museum is located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Ave. and Elder Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Public telephone number is 202-782-2200 and the web site is www.natmedmuse.afip.org. Admission and parking are free.