Abraham Lincoln scholars and admirers will want to head to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Maryland this month as the facility commemorates the 150th anniversary of our 16th president's assassination.

Lincoln was shot April 14, 1865, and died the following morning at Petersen House, across the street from Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.

The museum, whose founders played a major role in treating Lincoln after the shooting, is marking the event with a temporary exhibit and special lectures detailing his final hours.

NMHM, in Silver Spring, Maryland, was established during the Civil War as the Army Medical Museum, and the facility has long been the caretaker of important artifacts related to Lincoln's death, including the bullet that killed him, the Nelaton's probe used to locate it inside his brain, and fragments of his skull.

Museum officials have gathered these items and more in a temporary exhibit and also will host an open house, family program and lectures April 14-15.

"Rarely can a museum claim to be as much a part of an event as it is the holder of its historical significance," NMHM director Adrianne Noe said. "In the case of the response to the assassination of President Lincoln, the National Museum of Health and Medicine tells our own history when we describe the medical response to that national tragedy."

When John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in Ford's Theatre during a performance of "Our American Cousin" on April 14, 1865, Army physician Dr. Charles Leale, also in the audience, immediately treated him by removing a blood clot from Lincoln's skull using his pinky finger and then initiating artificial respiration.

Two other Army doctors, Charles Taft and Albert King — who, ironically, had served earlier in the Confederate States Army — assisted and carried the stricken president to Peterson House. Later, at the home, the physicians were joined by Lincoln family doctor Robert Stone.

Events scheduled for April 14 include a family program from 5 to 7 p.m., evening hours until 10:30 p.m., and a lecture by retired Army surgeon Dr. Lawrence Mohr, White House physician to Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and Dr. Thomas Gennarelli, a University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine neurosurgeon.

On April 15, the museum will mark the hour of Lincoln's death with a ceremony at 7 a.m. followed by a moment of silence at 7:22 a.m. Later, there will be a review of Lincoln's autopsy and a gallery talk at noon, 150 years to the time that the autopsy was performed in what is now the Presidential Dining Room in the White House.

The exhibit, "His Wound is Mortal: The Final Hours of President Abraham Lincoln," will continue on display through December.

For more information on the Lincoln exhibits, special events and the museum, check out the NMHM website at or call (301) 319-3300.

About Patricia Kime

Patricia Kime is a senior writer covering military and veterans health care, medicine and personnel issues.

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