National exhibit in library displays medical artifacts from Civil War era

Library Exhibit
Students, faculty, staff and community members attend the Nov. 7 grand opening of the traveling national exhibit ‘Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine’ featured in Emma Waters Summar Library. | Photo by Jacob Moore

An exhibit on display in Emma Waters Summar Library honors African Americans who served and made contributions to the delivery of health care during the Civil War.

The display will remain in the library until Dec. 14.

“Three display cases inside the library offer Civil War artifacts and medical antiquities,” said Anna Beth Morgan, associate vice president for Academic Resources and director of the library.

“In addition to artifacts owned by Union University, Jackson’s Carnegie Center for the Arts and History, the Brooks Shaw Collection from the Old Country Store and Jackson-Madison County General Hospital have loaned display items for the exhibit period.”

Morgan said “Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine” is one of many in the traveling exhibit program provided by the United States National Library of Medicine.

Union is the first place to host the exhibit, whose grand opening was Nov. 7.

After a viewing at 6:30 p.m. with a reception that took place in the library, David Thomas, professor of history, and Jill Webb, professor of nursing and the assistant director of the Honors Community, then spoke out about different aspects of the war at a program in Penick Academic Complex.

Another display case located in the hall across from Union Station features Union University during the time of the Civil War.

“This exhibit should inform students about a little known part of history, which is the contribution of African Americans to the delivery of health care during the Civil War,” Morgan said.