Museum receives World War I era facial reconstruction lantern slides

The National Museum of Health and Medicine has received nearly 200 lantern slides from the family of a World War I era U.S. Army dentist who gathered them while serving in France and in the United States. They graphically depict patients who have received facial reconstruction surgery.

A portrait of Dr. Archibald Louis Miller, a World War I era U.S. Army dentist, who collected facial reconstruction slides while serving in France and the United States.

Dr. Archibald Louis Miller, a graduate of George Washington College who joined the Army as a lieutenant in May 1917, was promoted to major in early 1918 and sent to Base Hospital No. 6 in France. While overseas he was assigned to the Maxillo Facial Services of the American Expeditionary Force.

After about a year he was given orders to return to the United States for duty and was told by his commanding officer, “It affords me great pleasure to announce that your services … have been excellent throughout. You have met all the conditions that presented and have successfully accomplished everything that could reasonably be expected of anyone under like conditions.”

Miller was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1920. He died of spinal meningitis in 1929 at the age of 46.

Mike Rhode, the museum’s chief archivist, shows slides of facial reconstruction during WWI, to the family of the donor.

The collection was passed from Miller to his daughter, Evelyn Louise Miller Peterson. After her death in 2003 her three surviving sons decided that because their grandfather had served at Walter Reed Hospital they would donate the collection to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, because today it is located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

“It is comforting to know the collection will be kept safe and may be useful to others in some way,” said Stuart C. Peterson of Taneytown, Md. on behalf of his brothers, Elton M. and Robert B. “Thank you for helping to make our endeavor complete.”

Sometimes called the “father of film,” the magic lantern was invented in Europe in the 1650s. Images were painted onto glass and projected using candle or lantern light onto walls, cloth or other surfaces. Later, lantern slides were made by taking a photograph and printing the image onto transparent glass, which would then be sandwiched together with another piece of glass to protect the emulsion. In the late 19th century, lantern slides began being used for educational purposes, and were commonly used to illustrate lectures.

The donation was handled by Michael Rhode, chief archivist, and Tabitha Oglesby, assistant archivist of the Otis Historical Archives, which holds manuscripts, documents, archives, films, prints, slides, paintings, photographs, illustrations, and institutional records related to health and medicine. Material includes the records of the Army Medical Museum and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, but all material is not necessarily institutionally related.

There is a small reference library with journals and monographs. The archival collections consist of more than 400 collections that are about 3,000 linear feet and if laid end to end would stretch for over a mile. Of this, there are about 1,000 films and about 300,000 photographs in all media dating from the 1850s.The collections are strongest in the late 19th and early 20th century periods. For more about Otis Historical Archives, look at www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum/collections/archives/archives.html