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On Life & Limb: The Experiences of Disabled Soldiers in the Post-Civil-War U.S.

Posted: 06 Apr 2011 09:31 AM PDT

The National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division, has just released its latest online exhibition, entitled Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War. Following up on the heels of the recent focus on African-American health providers during the Civil War (Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine), the latest exhibition complements the analysis of medical practices, racism, and workforce issues during the Civil War with a look at the experiences of disabled veterans after the War.

I was overjoyed to see the latest exhibition for mostly selfish reasons; one of my current history projects is just such an analysis, examining the experiences of North Carolina Civil War veterans with the incipient N.C. pension system for Confederate veterans. There is some general historiography on the lives of disabled veterans after the War, but I am reasonably confident in asserting that the literature is underdeveloped, especially as to the former Confederate states, which, unlike the Union, typically had no organized pension systems until the late 1870s-early 1880s (the Union established pensions for its soldiers in 1862).

Like virtually everything coming out of NLM-HMD these days, the exhibition is beautifully and thoughtfully put together. Congratulations to Manon Parry (the curator), and all the people who contributed to the exhibition. More generally, the resources at the NLM are just spectacular for anyone remotely interested in the history of medicine and public health, and the NLM's digitization and online accessibility focus are also first-rate. The exhibition, not to mention the NLM-HMD web site itself, is highly recommended.