THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE OFFERS HOLIDAY DISCOUNT IN GIFT SHOP FROM DECEMBER UNTIL FEBRUARY

WASHINGTON-The National of Museum of Health and Medicine will celebrate the holidays by offering a 10-percent discount on selected items in its gift shop from Dec. 1, 2003 to Feb. 29, 2004.

The discounted items will include the Tasco 900 zoom microscope, "My First Skeleton" plastic model and poster, and assorted ceramic tile collectibles.

The museum will offer this discount as part of the Washington D.C. Convention and Tourism Corporation's Holiday Homecoming promotion.

"We hope that the holiday discount will encourage visitors to purchase items as they come in and see the museum," said Donna White, the museum's administrator. "The gift shop offers some very unique merchandise that will, without a doubt, remind people of their visit to Washington, D.C. and the National Museum of Health and Medicine."

Among the other items on sale in the gift shop are a wide variety of health and medicine-related products, including adult and children's apparel, books, posters, collectibles, and jewelry. Specific items for sale include: board games, pencils with brain erasers, playing cards with decks featuring pioneers in medicine, scientists, and the Civil War, anatomical key rings, syringe pens, health posters, miniature skeletons, pins, mugs, water bottles, baseball caps, t-shirts, and books for children and adults.

The gift shop, located in the museum's lobby, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mastercard and Visa are accepted.

The National Museum of Health and Medicine began as the national repository for Civil War injuries when Surgeon General William Hammond directed medical officers in the field to collect "specimens of morbid anatomy . . . together with projectiles and foreign bodies removed" and to forward them to the newly founded museum for study.

Founded to study and improve medical conditions during the American Civil War, the museum is an element of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Its specimens and artifacts were the first museum collection in the country and are currently the only in Washington, D.C. to be registered by the U.S. Department of the Interior as a National Historic Landmark. The Secretary of the Interior, who has designated only 2,340 districts, sites, buildings, and structures for listing in the National Register, selected the museum's collection because of its "exceptional value in commemorating and illustrating the history of the United States."

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. The web site is nmhm.washingtondc.museum and the telephone number is 202-782-2200. Admission and parking are free.