“Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War” exhibit

A special exhibit on Civil War medicine is headed to Loma Linda University. The exhibit, featuring six banners, each seven feet tall, will be on campus from May 14 to June 22 in the Del E. Webb Memorial Library.

Titled “Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War,” the exhibit was developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. It is free of charge and open to the public.

The perspectives of surgeons, physicians, and nurses are richly documented in the history of Civil War medicine, which highlights the heroism and brutality of battlefield operations and the challenges of caring for the wounded during wartime. Yet the experiences of injured soldiers during the conflict and in the years afterwards are less well known. This exhibit focuses on disabled veterans and their role as symbols of the fractured nation.