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Exhibit Honors Northwestern’s WWII Medical History

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About a month after Axis forces attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, more than 600 Northwestern physicians and dentists, along with Chicago-area nurses and enlisted men from across the country, were activated as the 12th General Hospital Unit. After training in the U.S. for almost a year, they would travel abroad to treat nearly 30,000 patients over the course of World War II.

“Operation Saving Lives,” an interactive digital and physical exhibit developed by Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center, showcases the recruitment, training and medical experiences of the unit, in addition to the recreational activities that bonded its members together. The exhibit launched August 14 with an event at the Chicago campus featuring guest speaker Sanders Marble, PhD, senior historian for the U.S. Army Office of Medical History.

“They served their country,” Marble said, “and by helping the sick and wounded soldiers, they helped win the war.”

The exhibit materials were primarily drawn from the papers of Northwestern University Medical School alumni Michael L. Mason, ’33 MD, and James A. Conner, ’24 MD, ’31 GME. Materials were also contributed by other family members of those who served with the 12th General Hospital, some of whom spoke to their personal connection to the unit at the August 14 event.

The exhibit was curated by U.S. National Library of Medicine Fellow Gabrielle Barr, MSI, with Galter’s Departments of Special Collections, User Services and Research Assessment and Communications.

Travel back through Northwestern’s WWII medical history:

Rows and rows of tents line Fort Custer in Michigan to house the 12th General Hospital crew members.
Before deployment, 12th General Hospital personnel underwent drills, attended military and medical lectures and took part in surgical sections and discussions to review material at Fort Custer in Michigan. The unit enjoyed relative freedom while stationed here, seeing movies, listening to records, playing ping-pong, going into the nearby town and making visits to Chicago.
James A. Conner and colleagues at Fort Benjamin Harrison, wearing their military dress, pose for a group shot.
James A. Connor and colleagues pose at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana, where they continued training and underwent physical examinations themselves before deployment.
Nurses play softball in Ain-el-Turck in Algeria.
The first stop overseas for the 12th General Hospital Unit was Ain-el-Turck, a seaside resort in Algeria. Although their free time was diminishing, 12th General Hospital personnel found time to play team sports. Here, a group of nurses play softball in Ain-el-Turck.
A skin graft in process.
Though the doctors and nurses of the 12th General Hospital Unit were highly skilled, the casualties of wartime pushed them beyond anything they had experienced as civilian practitioners. They even took on newly developed operations like secondary closures, which they witnessed for the first time when they were stationed in Naples, Italy. This photo shows a skin graft in process.
Typhus raged through Naples, Italy in 1943. To suppress the outbreak, members of the 12th General Hospital Unit helped set up refugee DDT dusting stations, pictured here, to control typhus-carrying lice. This became the first time in history when mankind prevailed over the virus.

View the rest of the online exhibit. Explore the entire 12th General Hospital digital collection.