NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE ACQUIRES NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURY WHEELCHAIRS

WASHINGTON-The National Museum of Health and Medicine has acquired two wheelchairs to add to its collection of more than 12,000 historical objects. Both chairs were donated to the museum.

Dr. Waldo R. Fisher, a retired endocrinologist living in Gainesville, Fla., donated one of these chairs, which is thought to date from the early 19th century. He acquired the wheelchair in 1953 after his first year of medical school at the University of Pennsylvania.

"I was driving from New England to Philadelphia, and stopped at a tavern for the night," Fisher said. "The manager let me look around the building, and I found this wheelchair in the attic. He let me take it, and thus began the saga of renovating it."

The small chair, which was made for a child or an elderly person, was in a poor condition when Fisher found it. The frame was broken and the seat was missing. Although the wagon wheels and hardware were intact, Fisher had to "practically disassemble it" to make the necessary repairs.

The renovation process took Fisher almost 50 years to complete. He replaced several wood panels, screws, and rims intermittently throughout his professional career. Fisher replaced the chair's broken seat with a new one made of a dark mahogany. He also changed the color of the chair's wheels, which were originally bright orange, to a darker color that "blends better with the chair as a whole." "I know it sounds like it took an incredibly long time for me to do this," he said. "But one has to understand that I was working full-time, and this wheelchair has been a hobby of mine for years. When I retired and finally finished it in 2003, I began looking for a home for it. After my renovations, it is again a functional wheelchair. However, it has long since earned its retirement from active service. After approaching various organizations and individuals, I decided the museum would put it to the best use."

The second wheelchair dates from the early 20th century. It was made for the use of Frances Z. Simmons, who died in 2003 at the age 78. Her surviving relatives, Vernon and Jean Simmons, donated the chair to the museum shortly after her death.

Simmons suffered from osteo genises imperfecta, a disease that stunted her growth and confined her to the wheelchair from early childhood. Her wheelchair, like Fisher's, has a narrow seat and large wheels.

"The significance of these chairs is that they demonstrate vernacular wheelchair designs that have been used in the 19th and 20th centuries," said Mike Simons, the museum's registrar. "Both are intended for small individuals, and both show how the designs continue to change and adapt." According to experts, the wheelchair originated in 4,000 BC in the Mediterranean basin with the invention and eventual combination of furniture and the wheel. The initially rudimentary design slowly evolved into the wheelbarrow, which was often used to assist the sick, elderly, and disabled. The modern design of wheelchairs, first utilized in 19th century England, focused on the comfort of the disabled, and featured footrests and reclining backs. Both of the chairs acquired by the museum are modern in design.

The historical collection at the National Museum of Health and Medicine documents changes in medical technology since the early 17th century and includes objects ranging in size from a suture needle to a two-ton MRI magnet, such as X-ray equipment, microscopes, surgical instruments, numismatics, and anatomical models. The collection is made available for the education of medical professionals, Department of Defense personnel, historians, and the public through exhibits in the museum, loans to other institutions, and individualized study.

The National Museum of Health and Medicine, founded as the Army Medical Museum in 1862 to study and improve medical conditions during the American Civil War, 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 website is nmhm.washingtondc.museum and the telephone number is 202-782-2200. Admission and parking are free.