FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 12, 2001
Contact: Steven Solomon, 202-782-2672, [log in to unmask]
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                Rachel Coker, 202-782-2671, [log in to unmask]
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NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE OPENS EXHIBIT
FEATURING THE PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION OF DR. ANITA McGEE

WASHINGTON - "American Angels of Mercy: Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee's Pictorial
Record of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904" opens Oct. 1 at the National Museum
of Health and Medicine and remains through Feb. 28, 2002.
Dr. McGee, an acting assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army and founder of the
U.S. Army Nurse Corps that she directed from 1898-1901, led a group of
trained nurses to work in Japanese army hospitals for six months in 1904. As
volunteers, McGee and her nurses were treated as guests of the Japanese
nation, greeted with "Welcome, American Angels of Mercy" banners in the
streets.
"During the whole of the time the party spent in Japan the appreciation and
gratitude of the soldiers and of the whole nation, from the Throne itself
and the highest nobility down to the country folk and school children, found
expression in a thousand ways," McGee said in a 1905 lecture about her
experiences.

On her return to the United States, McGee delivered lectures using colored
lantern slides that had largely been made from photographs she acquired. The
new exhibit is based on McGee's photograph collection, including works by
several noted American, British, and Japanese photographers of the early
20th century, which is part of the museum's Otis Historical Collections.
Among the nearly 200 photographs in the exhibit are those that depict:
                * her welcome, which she said was "thoroughly characteristic
of the polite nation"
* the Japanese army's medical corps as she saw it from the inside
* the military hospitals and their management
* the Red Cross Society, with a membership of nearly a million
* the work of the Japanese nurses and of her own party
*life at the Military Reserve Hospital in Hiroshima
* honors shown the dead
                * experiences of some of the wounded soldiers
* hospital ships
* how she lived in Chinese temples and visited Korean battlefields
                * Russian prisoners and their treatment as she saw it in
Manchuria, on the hospital ships, and at the prisoner's hospital in
Matsuyama.

"This exhibit focuses on the half-year Dr. McGee and a party of nine nurses
spent in Japan working side by side with Japanese nurses in the wards and
operating rooms," said Michael Rhode, archivist in the museum's Otis
Historical Archives. "She was given the rank of an officer in the Japanese
Army, so she had unlimited access to inspect and report on various hospitals
in Japan, in Manchuria, and Korea."
The Japanese minister of war appointed McGee supervisor in 1904 of the
Nurses Red Cross Society of Japan. For her efforts she received the rare
honor of the "Order of the Sacred Crown" from His Majesty, the Emperor of
Japan as well as the special decoration of the Red Cross Society.
The Otis Historical Archives at the National Museum of Health and Medicine
contain more than 350 collections, including an extensive photographic
collection with many early photomicrographs, examples of medical
illustrations from the Civil War and World War I, films and videos, and
trade literature and advertisements from the late 19th century.  The
holdings of the archives would stretch more than a mile if laid end to end.
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 <http://www.natmedmuse.afip.org>. Admission and
parking are free.
###

"The National Museum of Health and Medicine of the Armed Forces Institute of
Pathology is located on the campus of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in
Washington, DC, which is now at a heightened state of alert. Unless you are
visiting the museum with a tour or school group by bus, you must personally
make an appointment at least two days in advance by calling the museum's
facilities manager at 202-782-2200. If you drive onto the campus, your car
may be stopped for inspection. Whether you drive or walk onto the campus you
must present a valid motor vehicle driver's license and other picture I.D.
card and tell the guard that the museum is the destination. Tour and school
groups arriving by bus will only be permitted entry onto the campus if the
names of all visitors have been submitted in advance by calling the museum's
tour coordinator at 202-782-2680. The bus may be stopped for inspection and
the driver must present a valid motor vehicle driver's license and other
picture I.D. card and tell the guard that the museum is the destination.
Parking is permitted in front of the museum only for buses. Your safety is
our top priority. We regret any inconvenience this may cause."

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