View Civil War artifacts on display through Dec. 14

Faculty, staff and students take a few minutes to view the U.S. National Library of Medicine's traveling exhibit, 'Binding Wounds: Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine' at Emma Waters Summar Library.
Photo by JACOB MOORE/University Communications

"There were loyal women, as well as men,
in those days who did not fear the shell
or the shot, who cared for the sick and dying."

Susie King Taylor, a nurse with the 33rd United States Colored Infantry, wrote those words in 1902.

Taylor, an African American, was one of those loyal women of whom she spoke.

Historical information about King and several other African Americans who served as nurses and doctors in the United States Civil War can be found at the U.S. National Library of Medicine exhibit on display through Dec. 14 at Emma Waters Summar Library.

Tall panels packed with fascinating images of letters, newspaper clippings and journal pages tell their stories, along with insightful quotes and Civil War era photographs and lithographs.

Exhibit photos by PAUL SORRELL/Emma Waters Summar Library

But there's much more to see in the exhibit (see more photos at bottom), because three local entities, along with Union University Archives, contributed artifacts related to Civil War field medicine for the temporary display.

• Jackson-Madison Co. General Hospital provided several items, including a Troemner apothecary scale and weights, various apothecary bottles and a cast iron mortar and pestle.
• The Carnegie Center for Arts & History in downtown Jackson -- which just happens to be the location of Jackson's first public library, opened in 1903 as The Jackson Free Library -- provided a cannonball, bullets, rifle balls and a cache of medicine bottles used at a Confederate hospital site.
• The Brooks Shaw Collection, on loan from the Old Country Store in Casey Jones Village in Jackson, also provides a look back in time with surgical instruments used in the war, a doctor's bag and even a medical saddle bag.

Those who would like to learn more can visit a new research guide created for the exhibit, which includes links to educational resources provided by the National Library of Medicine, along with access to video, photo archives, lists of books that can be found in our library and so much more.

Just click the tabs to access all of these resources -- and don't forget to stop in and view the exhibit.