Step into the National Museum of Civil War Medicine here in Frederick, Maryland. The museum's focus centers on the medical, surgical and nursing practices of the American Civil War, 1861–1865. It began as the vision of Dr. Gordon E. Damman, a private collector of Civil War–era medical artifacts, incorporated in 1990 and first opened to the public in 1996.
In October 2000 it moved into its current home: a three-story 19th century brick building that served as a furniture maker and undertaker operation during the war. Inside this 7,000-square-foot (650 m2) museum you will find five immersion exhibits that recreate life in an army camp, evacuation of the wounded, a field dressing station, a field hospital and a military hospital ward. The displays use surviving tools and equipment from the war, including the only known surviving Civil War surgeon’s tent, surgical kits, and items relating to veterinary medicine.
In 2006 the museum published its first book, Robert G. Slawson’s Prologue to Change: African Americans in... Imagine the hands that handled those instruments, then picture the brickwork and storefronts of this three-story building.