This exhibit on Naval Medicine in World War II was put together by Abbott Laboratories in 1943 to tour the United States as part of their contribution to the war effort. The captions to the paintings, with minor alterations, were those originally written by the artists themselves.
Enterprise and resourcefulness, in concert with genuine talent and unsparing labor, have produced this arresting delineations of Naval Medicine. During World War II, Abbott Laboratories, wanting to aid the war effort, hired civilian artists as art correspondents. With the cooperation of the armed services, they were sent to military activities in the United States and abroad. They spent many weeks living the life of medical officers and hospital corpsmen, striving for authenticity. Whether in a warship's sick bay or at a hospital corpsmen's training school, aboard a hospital ship or deep in the bush with a medical battalion of the Marines, the unending job of treating the sick and injured offered the artists great opportunities for the exercise of eyes, hands, and imaginations.
Abbott circulated the finished artwork through publications and museum exhibitions throughout the country, and after the war donated it to the military services. This exhibit highlights a sampling of this important collection.
