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    • Type: Place
    • Locations: Chesapeake Bay
    View of the waterfront with a blue building, wooden pier, and greenery.

    Discover the St Clement’s Island Museum where Maryland's founding story comes to life. Explore exhibits that highlight the rich history of the Piscataway People and early settlers. Stand on the historic island where the first English settlers landed in 1634, accessible by water taxi. Experience the beauty of the Potomac River and immerse yourself in the culture that shaped the Chesapeake Bay. Don’t miss the chance to learn and explore this unique site in St. Mary’s County.

  • Blue Ridge Parkway

    Orlean Puckett

    • Type: Person
    • Locations: Blue Ridge Parkway
    a historic photo of an elderly man and woman in work clothes from the 1880s

    Legendary midwife, Orlean Puckett, delivered over 1,000 babies in the Appalachian Mountains of southern Virginia.

  • War In The Pacific National Historical Park

    Assan through the Ages

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: War In The Pacific National Historical Park
    Line drawing of Assan Beach, showing key features and property

    Assan Beach, the 2,500-yard shoreline stretching between Punta Adilok (Adelup Point) and Punta Assan (Asan Point), which the Marines in World War II called a "pair of devil horns," is a poignant symbol of the Guam's complex history, blending indigenous CHamoru traditions, wartime struggle, and ongoing military presence. In many ways, the story of Guam can be read through the story of Assan Beach. Talk a walk through history at Assan Beach.

    • Type: Place
    A four story brick building with boarded up windows behind a chain link fence.

    St. Elizabeths Hospital, formerly known as the Government Hospital for the Insane, was the first federally-funded mental hospital in the country. In 1852, Congress established the Government Hospital for the Insane on 350-acres overlooking the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington. It would become an international model for psychiatric hospital design and a prominent center for mental health research during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

    • Type: Article
    Three people talking on a beach, two of them wearing transparent plastic sleeves

    Scientists tested water samples from 46 national parks in the largest study of its kind.

  • Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

    Doctor Mary Walker at Chatham Manor

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park
    Portrait of Mary Walker.

    In December 1862, Doctor Mary Walker went to Chatham Manor after the Battle of Fredericksburg to help treat the wounded. Walker, who graduated from medical school in 1855, was a lifelong supporter of women's rights and the only women to have been awarded the Medal of Honor because of her service during the Civil War.

  • Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

    Jonathan Letterman

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park
    Portrait of Jonathan Letterman, man in Civil War Union uniform.

    Jonathan Letterman was Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac. His innovative reforms improved and standardized the care of soldiers on the battlefield. Today, Jonathan Letterman is known as the “Father of Modern Battlefield Medicine.”

  • Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

    Walt Whitman at Chatham Manor

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park
    Photograph of Walt Whitman, seated, with messy beard and straw hat.

    Walt Whitman arrived at Chatham after the Battle of Fredericksburg in search of his wounded brother. He ended up staying and helping wounded soldiers. Whitman's account of Chatham in December of 1862 provides a detailed description of the hospital operation and the level of carnage wrought by the Battle of Fredericksburg. The time that he spent in Fredericksburg impacted his decision to serve as a nurse for the remainder of the war.

  • Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

    Private Josiah Murphey

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park
    A young Civil War Union soldier sits posed for a picture.

    Private Josiah Murphey was in the 20th Massachusetts and took part in the street fighting on December 11, during the Battle of Fredericksburg. He was wounded and was one of the patients known to have been treated at Chatham Manor.

  • Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

    Confederate Soldiers Treated at Chatham

    • Type: Article
    • Locations: Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park

    When nurse Clara Barton listed the patients that she encountered at Chatham, she included three Confederate soldiers. Read what park researchers could learn about these soldiers who were captured and brought to Chatham for treatment during the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Last updated: February 5, 2019