Richmond Renaissance – Day Four
By day four of my Richmond adventures, I was starting to feel a little starved for new ideas. After camp drop-off I sat in the car staring at the map of Richmond thinking, “Where on earth should I go?” I looked at a few names on the map, put them into my iPhone and started ruling out possibilities. Not open today. Information about visitors is too vague. By my fifth search I finally found something that looked promising . . . . the Chimborazo Medical Museum.
The Chimborazo Medical Museum is part of the National Park Service and the Richmond area Civil War heritage. It is located on the eastern side of downtown. The building housing the museum is not original and is pretty small. I wasn’t sure if this was going to be all that interesting but I got a good lesson that you can’t judge a good museum by its size.
The first stop in the museum is to view a film about the Chimborazo Hospital, the largest medical complex in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Approximately 76,000 men were treated at Chimborazo and about 80 percent of them recovered. The hospital was big but not necessarily known for its quality of care. It was generally known that if you had the money, you would get better care at any of the “private hospitals” run out of people’s homes.
After any major battle in the Civil War, “every home, barn and shed in a 5-mile radius” was used to treat the wounded. If you just happened to live near the battle, you could expect your home to be taken over. One woman wrote that when she returned to her home after a battle, she had to bury the beds, clothing, blankets and quilts that were all soaked in blood. It would seem like such a violation to have your home used in this way.
The germ theory of disease had yet to be discovered during the Civil War, training for doctors was uneven and many medicines did more harm than good. Doctors did learn that if you amputated within 24 hours of an injury, there was a 73% chance of survival. So, after a battle, the amputations began. Each amputation took about 5 minutes. They didn’t clean any of the tools or bedding between patients. It sounds almost like an assembly line. How anyone survived this is astounding!
Because all men were needed to fight for the Confederacy, the staff and nurses at Chimborazo were primarily slaves and white women. Interestingly, it was far more offensive to the white soldiers to be nursed by a white woman than a slave.
There was this amazing quote and picture on the wall.
I was so surprised to see such eloquent writing from a female slave. My assumption was that most slaves were illiterate, except for a few males here and there. I had to buy her book in the gift shop and look forward to reading it.
After the film, there is a very small museum exhibit of medical instruments and medicines. One of the most interesting was an inhaler device for the administration of chloroform as an anesthetic. While they did drip chloroform on cloths and place it over the patient’s mouth and nose, the problem with this approach was that not only did the chloroform affect the patient, the fumes would also start to affect the surgeon and his staff!
After the museum, we still had some time to kill so we went walking in the park nearby. There was a wonderful circle of crepe myrtle trees with benches. The flowers gave off such a wonderful fragrance, kind of like lilacs.
My son surprised me with his literacy awareness at this stone commemorating the Powhatan Indians. He liked the raised metal letters and was pointing out O’s to me.
We found a replica of the Statue of Liberty that was erected by the Boy Scouts several years ago.
We still had some time left and it was too hot to just sit in the car so we went for a walk in the neighborhood nearby. There were some incredible Victorian-style houses and many of the residents had taken such pride in decorating. There were a lot of great ideas on display.
There was even one for sale! Richmond housing prices are relatively cheap by DC and even Fredericksburg standards.
We drove back to pick up my daughter for lunch and on the way had an incredible hilltop view.
For our afternoon adventure, I thought we would stick to the Civil War theme and go to the Tradegar Iron Works, also part of the Park Service. However, when I put the coordinates into the GPS, I ended up getting lost. As I was flipping a U-turn, I saw this sign:
On our cross-country driving trips, we have had many great encounters with war memorials. Most cities put a lot of thought and effort into their architecture. We pulled into the parking lot and I looked it up on my iPhone. Sure enough, it was free admission and it was open!
The lobby had many inspiring quotes up on the walls from famous military leaders.
Next, we entered an exhibit on U.S. military uniforms throughout time. There were wonderful displays with mannequins dressed in reproduction uniforms from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, World War II and Vietnam. The mannequins were posed in action positions and this made such a difference in making the artifacts come to life.
Next, the volunteer tour guide asked if we wanted to see a film. “It’s a war film,” he cautioned, noting the ages of my children. I indicated that we would like to see it. He cautioned me again, “This depicts war as it really was,” they said. My husband’s military history interest has resulted my exposure to numerous military and war films so I was not too worried. He led us into a really nice small theater with military flags on either side. “I’ll leave this back door open just in case,” he said. The movie began. The basic theme was children asking their grandparents or older neighbors about various wars they had served in, beginning with World War II. Then the movie would cut to a realistic depiction of a battle sequence from that particular conflict. The scenes are graphic but very well done. The production value in this movie was very high. To add to the realistic effect, there are some other effects that go on in the theater during the film. I won’t spoil the surprise by telling what they are but it is definitely worth coming to see for yourself. There is one effect my kids loved.
My children were very terrified by this movie. They both wanted to leave. I told them to cover their eyes because I wanted to see how it ended. They were glad when it was over. In general, this museum is geared for kids in junior high and older.
War museums have a difficult set of choices to make. On the one hand, they want to educate their visitors about what war is like and to make the material engaging. On the other hand, since many of their visitors are also veterans, they have to balance how graphic they get with their material with the danger of inducing PTSD.
After the movie, we walked outside to see a statue and a memorial wall indicating the veterans who were killed in action in each Virginia county.
From the outside, we wandered into the lower level of the museum. Here, a tour guide showed us the room housing the memorial to people killed in the current War on Terror. They had framed photos of each Virginia soldier and they wrapped around the entire room. They did a very nice job choosing pictures. Some were the official military uniform photos. Some were more casual shots. They all conveyed vibrancy and life and it was so sad to know that all these lives were cut short by war. The tour guide indicated that the museum has special plans for a permanent memorial to these soldiers.
Also on the lower area of the museum was a wall of detailed figurines depicting all kinds of wars. There was everything from World War II tanks to Scottish and French war scenes. My son loved all the little vehicles.
There is another movie theater on the lower level. My children were very nervous about going into this theater but the tour guide indicated that these movies were more informational and not reenactments like the movie was upstairs. We got to choose from among about 20 different titles. I chose a movie about the Army Nurse Corps which ended up tying in nicely with the military medical theme I began the day with. There were interviews with many Virginia women who served in the Army Nurse Corps during World War II. They had to go through boot camp just like the soldiers. My favorite anecdote was from the woman who said that you had use your helmet for just about everything — from washing your socks to making your coffee in the morning. This movie was not scary to my children and they sat through it just fine.
After the movie, we walked outside to see a small amphitheater that is just crying out for performances. Amy Wolfe’s ballet “Colin” about her son who was killed in the Marines would be a marvelous fit here.
My children wandered the rose garden for a bit and we headed out to pick up my daughter. Overall, the day ended up having a cohesive military theme despite being completely unplanned.
