Lori Andrews

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE

	Scholars say Robert Hooke used this microscope when he prepared "Micrographia," the first book describing observations made through a microscope. It is on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

The NMHM provides a glimpse at the history of medicine from shamans to modern day technological wonders. The museum has the world's most comprehensive collection of microscopes (including some dating back to the 1600s) and its medical equipment collection includes the surgical kit recovered from the site of Custer's last stand and an artificial kidney machine from the Korean War M.A.S.H. team.

museum The museum's Anatomical Collections include more than 5,000 skeletons, 10,000 preserved organs, and the largest collection of embryos and fetuses in the world. The collection is still used for important cutting edge research, such as imaging and 3-D reconstructions of embryo development. The museum also sponsors art exhibits. In "The Visible Skeleton Series," skeletons with spinal deformities from the museum's collection were scattered among 50 multilayered paintings created by an artist with scoliosis, Laura Ferguson, based on 3D spinal CT scans and other medical images of her own skeleton.

For information about the museum, check out http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum/