Smithsonian National Museum of American History Opens First Do No Harm on November 6 in Washington, 1969 Artificial Heart and 1928 Penicillin Mold, About Three Years
WASHINGTON — A new Smithsonian exhibition, First Do No Harm, opened November 6, 2026, at the National Museum of American History and is expected to remain on display for approximately three years, bringing together objects from the history of medicine and exploring how scientists, healthcare professionals, patients and communities have contributed to advances in medicine throughout American history. The museum is generally open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., except December 25, and admission is free with no passes required.
Among the featured artifacts is the Liotta-Cooley artificial heart, which became the first artificial heart implanted in a human in 1969, and a prototype scanner used by physicist Allan M. Cormack in 1963, whose research helped establish the theoretical foundations of computed tomography, known as CT scanning. Another artifact is a sample of penicillin mold from Alexander Fleming laboratory dating to 1928.
The exhibition also includes a syringe used by Jonas Salk during testing of the polio vaccine in 1950 alongside a vial of a COVID-19 vaccine from 2021, and it tells the story of the Chinese Benevolent Association in San Francisco, which established the Tung Wah Dispensary in 1899 to provide medical care for a community that faced exclusion from the city hospitals.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿国家广场旁的史密森尼美国国家历史博物馆建筑外观。G. Edward Johnson 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons / Photo: National Museum of American History 1. By G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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