War Department, The Adjudant General’s Office. Carded Medical Records for Individuals Serving in the 6th U.S. Cavalry, Artillery, and Infantry Regiments, with Surnames Beginning with McCo to McCr. The National Archives and Records Center, Washington, DC.

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pid: dewberry_archiveexample
label: War Department, The Adjudant General’s Office. Carded Medical Records for Individuals Serving in the 6th U.S. Cavalry, Artillery, and Infantry Regiments, with Surnames Beginning with McCo to McCr. The National Archives and Records Center, Washington, DC.
Timestamp: 10/8/2021 16:58:34
URL for full object: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/26463512
Citation for full object: War Department, The Adjudant General’s Office. Carded Medical Records for Individuals Serving in the 6th U.S. Cavalry, Artillery, and Infantry Regiments, with Surnames Beginning with McCo to McCr. The National Archives and Records Center, Washington, DC.
Filename in shared drive folder: Dewberry.archiveexample
General description of the complete original artifact: It’s a collection of hospital record cards for individual soldiers seeking treatment at federal hospitals. The cards in the set consist of last names starting with McCo to McCr from different hospitals in the US. The card dates range from 1821–1884.
Estimated number of records in data set: 70
Estimated number of fields if this were a database: 14
Estimated time to digitize all records in set (hours): I think it would take about 6-10 hours. There aren’t that many cards, but the handwriting can be hard to read.
Time period when data was created: The cards are from the 1800s.
Organization creating data: The United States Federal Government
Individual who created data (if known or guessable).: Nurses probably worked with the hospital copyist to collect and record the data.
Shortcomings of this taxonomy for data set (if any): The information included does’t give the reader a complete view of each soldiers visit, they leave out preexisting condition, age, and what treatments were administered. There’s no way to build a complete health record for each soldier from the information provided. You’d have to consult a different set of records to see what treatment resources the hospitals had or the differences in treatments across hospitals, because it’s not included in the cards.
Notes about the image you chose: I chose the card because it’s one of the most legible and it’s one of the only cards that actually has additional notes included on it. I thought it was strange that almost none of the cards had any remarks from the hospital staff, but I suppose that just demonstrates the priorities of federal hospitals at the time. They were less interested in the minutia of each patients’ experience/visit than simply getting them treated and on their way. This may be due to small hospital capacity or large demand for treatment.

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