Explore 'War and Medicine' online
12 November 2008
Over the last 150 years, as humans have developed increasingly sophisticated weaponry with which to harm their enemies, medicine has also evolved, owing to the volume and the changing nature of resulting casualties. The ‘War and Medicine’ exhibition highlights this relationship through the personal experiences of medical professionals and artists faced with the dilemmas of war.
The image galleries cover topics such as ‘Maintaining a fighting force,’ ‘War and the body’, and ‘The mental effects of battle’. The galleries include images from the Crimean War to recent conflicts in Afghanistan, ranging from a painted portrait of Nikolai Pirogov, the father of modern field surgery, to scenes from ‘The Watch Man’, a psychologically complex installation by Shona Illingworth.
The site’s exclusive videos follow the journeys of an artist and a nurse to war-torn countries. David Cotterrell, whose work ‘Theatre’ will be installed in ‘War and Medicine’ from 21 November, discusses his time in Afghanistan, a visit supported by the Ministry of Defence and the Wellcome Trust.
Nurse Vicky Treacy talks about her time in Darfur with Médecins Sans Frontières and the challenges she faced administering medicine amidst everyday violence.
’Remembering War: Your memories’ is an interactive area of the website where users can share their own memories of war - be they of personal experiences, memorable movies or family history - and view others submitted. As part of the ‘Remembering War’ symposium in January 2009, cognitive psychologists Professor Martin Conway and Dr Catriona Morrison will analyse the memories submitted in an attempt to understand how society as a whole remembers war.
Image: An operation for appendicitis at the Military Hospital, Endell Street, London; Chalk drawing by Francis Dodd, 1917; Wellcome Library, London