Old Phrenology Illustration

Massive archive of US Army medical illustrations and photos free online

Posted by Cory Doctorow, March 17, 2009 11:40 PM |

An incredible archive of US Army medical photos and illustrations is being made available free under a Creative Commons Attribution license on Flickr by the National Museum of Health and Medicine:

This previously unreported archive at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., contains 500,000 scans of unique images so far, with another 225,000 set to be digitized this year.

Mike Rhode, the museum's head archivist, is working to make tens of thousands of those images, which have been buried in the museum's archive, available on Flickr. Working after hours, his team has posted a curated selection of almost 800 photos on the service already, without the express permission of the Army.

"You pay taxes. These are your pictures," Rhode said. "You should be able to see them."

Medical Museum's Flickr stream

Rare Trove of Army Medical Photos Heads to Flickr