National Museum of Civil War Medicine

Description:

• Using display cases, wall exhibits, and particularly touching life-size dioramas with wax figures and sound effects, this museum brings to life the suffering and healing of the Civil War soldier. Exhibits focus on Civil War medicine from the initial treatment on the battlefield to the hospitals, hospital trains, operating rooms, treatments, and, finally, embalming practices used during that time. One display features Clara Barton and her efforts to bring supplies to soldiers on the battlefields. The building itself is where several thousand dead from the Battle of Antietam were housed and embalmed. The museum also operates Pry House Field Hospital Museum at Antietam Battlefield.

• © Frommer's 2012