Major H. A. Barnum, Recovery after a Penetrating Gunshot Wound of the Abdomen with Perforation of the Left Ilium, from the Photographic Catalogue of the Surgical Section

William Bell was a Philadelphia daguerreotypist who fought at Antietam and Gettysburg during the Civil War. In 1865, he was hired by the newly established Army Medical Museum in Washington to document the range of injuries and medical procedures among veterans. His catalogue of images helped establish the field of military medicine in the United States.Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006