Specimens of the Canadian Medical War Museum still lost,but photograph of the conservator found!

Abstract

Following our study of Morton E Hall (1887–1975) (Figure 1), who was the conservator of the Canadian War Museum when it was based at the Royal College of Surgeons in London during the First World War,¹ a new image has come to light amongst some historical photographs at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where Hall practiced for 30+ years.

Figure 1.

Morton E Hall (1887–1975). Date unknown but likely c. 1950. Photograph provided courtesy of Alberta Health Services Archives & Historic Collections, Calgary, Alberta.

The authors had done extensive consultation to try to find a high-resolution photograph of Morton Hall but could only find a low-resolution photograph not suitable for publication. Recently, one of us (SC), a pathologist at Hall’s former hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, was successful. Since the paper was already published on-line, it could not be added, and hence, the rationale for a very brief letter.

While we are delighted to have found a photograph of the conservator, unfortunately, similar progress has not been made in locating the collection of lost pathological teaching specimens derived from fallen Canadian soldiers.²

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Ken Dalton, Royal Alexandra Hospital medical photographer, for finding the photograph, which had at one time been framed and displayed in the Hospital.

References

Wright JR Jr and Letts HWV. Morton E Hall: Conservator of the Canadian War Museum in London, England during the Great War and Alberta’s second pathologist. J Med Biogr (in press).

Wright

Jr Alberti

SJMM

Lyons

et al. Maude Abbott and the origin and mysterious disappearance of the Canadian Medical War Museum. Arch Pathol Lab Med 2018; 142: 1292–1301.