Medicine in the War

Doctors and nurses were recruited from civilian hospitals to serve in the United States Army medical corps, while others volunteered with the American Red Cross. Hospitals were established at home and abroad to care for the sick and wounded, and new medical technologies, such as mobile X-Ray machines and motorized ambulances, were used for the first time.

Hospital Ships - X-ray room, U.S.S. Mercy

An Army medical field ambulance used during World War I

Soldier of Company K, 110th Regiment Infantry, just wounded, receiving first-aid treatment from a comrade. Varennes-en-Argonne, France.

Doctors in laboratory, Camp Devens, Massachusetts

 

Accordion

Explore photographs, textual, and other records related to medicine in World War I in our Catalog.

There are more than 110,000 World War I photographs in the National Archives Catalog.

Interested in further online research?  Visit the National Archives Catalog to begin your own search.

While many resources are available online for research, there are many more records to discover in National Archives research rooms across the country. The following records have been described at the Series and File Unit level, but have not yet been digitized. This list is not exhaustive; please consult our Catalog to browse more records, and contact the Reference Unit listed in each description for more information.

Red Cross

Explore teaching and learning resources for World War I, including primary sources, online tools, lesson plans, and multimedia.

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