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 The National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. is one of America's oldest and most respected institutions— and also one of its most forward-looking.
With roots in the 19th Century—collections include remnants of the remains of Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth and other key figures from the Civil War—NMHM is at the forefront of a 21st Century exploration of the cutting edge of museum science. The museum’s extensive historical, anatomical and embryology collections are now in the process of being digitized and made available online, which will be of incalculable value to medical researchers, pathologists, clinicians, forensic scientists and scholars in various other fields throughout the world.
An effort is underway to create a central repository for the museum’s digital collections, data archives and related computational resources at a new satellite location in Chicago. The National Museum of Health and Medicine Chicago will function as a bridge between the physical and virtual realms. NMHM Chicago will feature interactive exhibits where visitors can explore biomedical information in new ways and will act as a home for a team of information scientists who will advance the museum’s research initiatives. |
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Chicago is an ideal city for a satellite museum. In addition to its central location, the Windy City is home to several institutions that regularly collaborate with NMHM including The University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory and The Field Museum.
Historically, Chicago has also played a role as a center for the teaching of medical illustration. Finally, Chicago is the home of the Buonacorsi Foundation, a private philanthropic organization established to partner with NMHM in a variety of ongoing projects, most notably the effort to create the satellite facility. |
Information to Transformation
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The virtual character of the museum’s facilities and programming will allow NMHM Chicago to respond in a timely manner to contemporary biomedical issues as they develop. Exhibits drawn from the digital collections could be quickly organized to contextualize outbreaks such as the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, or shed light on a host of medical and social problems emerging in various parts of the world.
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Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture envisions a new kind of museum that is itself a living organism: both metaphorically in keeping with the museum’s theme and content, and literally, as the high performance building will actually generate its own sustainable energy.
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The timing for the project is right.
The National Museum of Health and Medicine headquarters in the nation’s capital is in the process of moving--and as a result many of the museum’s collections and archives will be separated from the physical exhibit space. This creates the perfect opportunity to establish a separate repository for the digitized versions of the collections which will stand as a visible link between the museum’s analog past and its digital future. |
Reflection of the Past in a Vision for Tomorrow
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National Museum of Health and Medicine Chicago will take advantage of 21st century technology to create a museum experience unlike that of any other museum around the globe.
The NMHM Chicago represents the synergistic convergence of efforts to advance the state-of-the-art in several areas: education, museum design, information science, community outreach, and architecture. Though sited in Chicago’s Loop, this will truly be a museum without walls, projecting its influence across the nation, and providing a rich immersive information experience to users no matter where they are located.
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