National Museum of Dentistry launches U.S. military exhibit
Online exhibit remembers dentists who served
The Dr. Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry has launched an online exhibit featuring an overview of dentists in the U.S. military throughout the years. The exhibit highlights dentists from the American Revolution to World War II through a series of portraits, all of which are items in the museum’s collection.
Poor oral health can be debilitating in many ways, said Patrick, Cutter, assistant director of the dental museum. This includes oral health in the military, and a desire to highlight this journey is part of the impetus behind launching the exhibit.
“This exhibit allows us to explore the journey the dental profession and the military took to advance dentistry and oral health as a necessary component of overall health, and, ultimately, a public service. We are excited to share this brief look into a very important story and celebrate the individuals who worked tirelessly to make it happen,” Mr. Cutter said.
The online exhibit aims to illustrate how dentists and oral health have long provided services to the U.S. military, from musketeers tearing powder packets to sailors using their teeth as an extra hand when climbing to adjust sails. During the Civil War, a dentist’s firearms inventions “laid the foundations for a shift in how the military perceived the dental profession,” according to the exhibit and was later recognized when Congress passed “An Act To increase the efficiency of the permanent military establishment of the United States” in 1901.
Featured in the exhibit is a large collection of portraits of dentists who served in the U.S. military from the past 250 years, as well as descriptions of who they were. For instance, early American dentists including Drs. Charles Wilson Peale, Josiah Flagg and Paul Revere served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and later went on to establish themselves in the dental field.
Another dentist, Dr. Horace Hayden, who served in the War of 1812, eventually founded the first dental college in the world, served as a private in the 39th Regiment of the Maryland Militia and as an assistant surgeon.
“By the War of 1812, dentists began establishing themselves in major cities, becoming integral participants in the scientific, educational and medical development of the young nation, laying the foundation for dental education and dentistry as a respected profession,” the exhibit reads.
The Civil War brought forth a push from the dental profession to incorporate a dental corps into the military. The exhibit states that various notable dentists enlisted on both sides of the war, including Drs. John Sayre Marshall, who went on to become the “Father of the American Dental Corps,” Charles Koch and Greene Vardiman Black on the Union side, and Drs. Adalbert Volck, Henry A. Parr and Richard Winder for the Confederacy.
The exhibit also includes valuable relics such as a signed poster of chiefs of the Dental Corps United States Army from 1901 to 1986 and a signed graduation photograph of a Confederate spy turned presidential dentist for presidents Ulysses S. Grant and James A. Garfield. There are also portraits of dentists who lost their lives during World War II.
The World War II portraits feature alumni from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, the University of Maryland Dental Department and the Dental School at the University of Maryland, which is now known as the University of Maryland School of Dentistry.
Some servicemembers include Dr. Hugh R. Alexander, class of 1919, who died during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 while aboard the USS Oklahoma; Dr. Wadsworth C. Trojakowski, class of 1923, who died aboard the USS Lexington during the Battle of Coral Sea in in 1942; and Dr. William B. Feindt, class of 1939, who fought in World War II and died of a nonbattle-related incident in India during the war.
For more information about these service members and dentistry’s history in the military, visit the online exhibit.
