Binding Wounds Pushing Boundaries Exhibit and Lecture

News Release Date: August 1, 2016

Contact: Janine da Silva, 508-996-4095 ext:6104

New Bedford, MA— New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park will be hosting “Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries,” a free exhibit which explores the participation and contributions of African Americans as nurses, surgeons, and hospital workers during the Civil War. “Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries” will be on display in the National Park visitor center from August 1 through September 10, 2016. Curator Jill L. Newmark will speak on the project on September 1, 2016 at the National Park visitor center at 6:00 PM. She will focus her presentation on the Powell family and their connections to New Bedford. New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park is located at 33 William Street in downtown New Bedford. The lecture is a joint event sponsored by the park and the New Bedford Historical Society.

“Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries” is a traveling exhibit developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine with research assistance from the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. This six-panel exhibit, curated by Jill L. Newmark of the National Library of Medicine, contains links to New Bedford history. William P. Powell, Jr., born in New Bedford and son of William P. and Mercy (Haskins) Powell served as a contract Union surgeon during the Civil War and the exhibit touches on his history. According to curator Jill Newmark, Exhibition Registrar of the National Library of Medicine, the exhibit “brings a voice to those that have remained silent for nearly 150 years.”