Национальный музей здоровья и медицины в Силвер-Спринг

Museum in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

The National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) is a museum in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, D. C. The museum was founded by U. S. Army Surgeon General William A. Hammond as the Army Medical Museum (AMM) in 1862; it became the NMHM in 1989 and relocated to its present site at the Army's Forest Glen Annex in 2011. An element of the Defense Health Agency (DHA), the NMHM is a member of the National Health Sciences Consortium.

The AMM was established during the American Civil War In 1862, Hammond directed medical officers in the field to collect "specimens of morbid anatomy together with projectiles and foreign bodies removed" and to forward them to the newly founded museum for study. In 1989, C. Everett Koop (in his last year as Surgeon General) commissioned the "National Museum of Health and Medicine Foundation", a private, nonprofit organization to explore avenues for its future development and revitalization, intending to ultimately returning its collection to a venue on the National Mall. Proposed was “a site on land that is located east of and adjacent to the Hubert H. Humphrey Building (100 Independence Avenue, Southwest, in the District of Columbia)”. In 1993, a draft bill authored by Sen. Edward Kennedy proposed $21.8 million for moving the existing collection to a new facility to be constructed on that site. That bill, however, was never introduced owing to political difficulties including objections from Constance Breuer—widow of Marcel Breuer, architect of the Humphrey Building—who objected to the view obstruction that the proposed construction would entail. A letter from the Department of Defense to Koop in the mid 1990s, expressed hope that the NMHM exhibits would "one day be provided the appropriate and prominent home they deserve back at the National Mall in the new National Health Museum". The DoD backed away from contributing to funding a new museum. The foundation was superseded by a new organization, dedicated to creating a National Health Museum, that focused on public health education. Although the effort for a physical museum appears to be defunct, the museum maintains a virtual presence.

The museum is located at 2500 Linden Lane in Silver Spring, Maryland, one mile outside the District of Columbia. It requires a photo ID for all adult visitors and is open to the public. It is open from 10 a. m. to 5:30 p. m. every day except Christmas (when it is closed), and admission is free.