NATIONAL HISTORY DAY FINALISTS PRESENT PROJECTS AT MUSEUM
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The works of six young historians, which include two exhibits, one performance, and two documentaries focusing on history as it relates to health and medicine, are now on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. The projects were created for the 26th annual National History Day (NHD), a national competition of more than 700,000 students in grades 6-12. This year, students competed to convey the theme "Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History."

After researching and designing their projects, students competed at multiple levels. The entries were judged at the local and state levels for historical quality, clarity of presentation, and adherence to the theme. Finally, about 2,100 students were invited to compete at the national level at the University of Maryland, College Park. Only six of these students were chosen to present their work at the museum, two of which presented a joint project.

Of the five projects selected for presentation at the museum, subject matter and presentation style varied widely.

Margaret Buff of Brooklyn, N.Y., 12, explored the history of the polio vaccine in her exhibit "The Man Who Saved the Children: Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine." Her grandfather, a pediatrician who treated polio patients, sparked her interest in the disease and vaccine. Her research led her to correspond with a scientist at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and Darrel Salk, M.D. (Jonas Salk's son). This exhibit examines the social, medical, and cultural effects of polio through photographs, illustrations, and text and is now on display in the lobby of the museum.

"I definitely found out a lot of things I didn't know about polio," said Buff. "Working on my project and competing in National History Day has been a great experience. The coolest part for me was actually talking to Jonas Salk's son on the telephone. It made me feel like I had a real connection to the topic that I was researching."

Lacey Howard of Haven, Kan., 13, took a different approach with her research. She investigated the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918 that killed more people in a few weeks than World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined. Her exhibit, "Influenza 1918: Encounter With the Unknown," is also on display in the museum's lobby and includes photographs, newspaper articles, and artifacts related to the epidemic.

"Last year, I watched a PBS special on the bubonic plague, which was something I thought was a good potential topic," Howard said. "But getting primary resources on the plague proved to be difficult, so I decided to focus on influenza instead, which turned out so well. I found it incredible how little people knew about influenza during that time, and even more so now. This project really taught me how to conduct research and how to carry a project all of the way through."

Colleen Fisher and Annie Laib of Springfield, Va. decided to present their joint project in a different format than the other participants. They created a documentary called "Anesthesia: The Exploration of Painless Civil War Amputations," that details the use of anesthesiology during the American Civil War. Their research led them to the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md., where they found anesthesia paraphernalia and interviewed staff members about the role that anesthetics played in amputation surgery during the war.

"We decided to do our project together, because we are in the same class at school and wanted to focus on something involving medicine," said Fisher, 12. "We had so much fun putting the documentary together. I think my favorite part was getting all of the pictures together for the background and editing the film itself."

Laib, also 12, added that they chose to create a documentary instead of an exhibit or performance because it "just looked like more fun. We were able to do things in a documentary that we couldn't in the other formats. I think that we were able to get our points across in a more meaningful way by making a film." The 10-minute documentary includes several Matthew Brady photos and still images of amputees. It is now available for viewing in the museum's classroom.

Doug Shultz of Sheboygan, Wis., 15, also chose to create a multi-media project. His documentary, "Smallpox: The Deadliest Weapon," tracks the history of the disease and how it affected Native Americans and Europeans. His film also explores the possibility of smallpox being used by modern day terrorists as a biological weapon.

"It really is an honor to participate in something like this," Shultz said.

The remaining student presented his project as an artistic performance. Benjamin Wagner's one-man performance, "The Great American Medicine Show," explored the history of Yankee peddlers, snake oil salesmen, and Indian medicinal remedies. Wagner, 12, also explained how muckrakers and the federal Pure Food and Drug Act of 1907 forced many medicine shows out of business and made manufacturers list ingredients on medicine bottles.

"The most interesting thing I found in my research was that most of the things sold at medicine shows were completely fake, which I didn't know before" Wagner, 11, said. "It's also funny to think that this was also a source of great entertainment before television."

In addition to the project presentations, students toured the museum's public display area, the anatomical, human developmental anatomy, and neuroanatomical collections, had lunch, and received awards from Adrianne Noe, Ph.D., the museum's director. She presented each student with a certificate in recognition of their extensive research and accomplishment.

National History Day is a year-long, non-profit educational program dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of history in elementary and secondary schools. The NHD student competition is the nation's oldest humanities contest.

Students participating in the NHD contest choose their own topics of study related to an annual theme and conduct extensive research.

They can produce museum-type exhibits, multimedia documentaries, original performances, or traditional research papers. The topic for the 2004-2005 program will be "Communication in History: The Key to Understanding."

The museum is open every day except Dec. 25 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The museum is located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Ave. and Elder Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Docent led tours are offered to walk-in visitors at 1 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of each month.