Smithsonian Opens Exhibition on Healthcare History

The National Museum of American History's new exhibition examines how science, practitioners, and communities have shaped healthcare in the United States.

Updated on Nov. 8, 2026 in Healthcare

Smithsonian Opens Exhibition on Healthcare History

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The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History opened the exhibition "First Do No Harm" to the public on Friday, November 6. The exhibition explores how practitioners, inventors, patients, and communities have shaped medicine and public health in the United States.

Why it matters

The exhibition brings artifacts and case studies on medical progress and health disparities to a national audience in Washington. It frames healthcare history around the people and communities affected by it, not only the innovations themselves.

The exhibition is scheduled to remain on view for about three years, beginning with its public opening on November 6. Maurice Hilleman, one of its featured case studies, helped develop some 40 life-saving vaccines, though the extraction does not detail how many of these appear in the display.

The players

Smithsonian's National Museum of American History

The Smithsonian Institution's museum in Washington, D.C., known for its collections on American science, medicine, and technology.

Margaret Heckler

Health and Human Services Secretary during the Reagan administration who commissioned the 1985 report on minority health disparities.

The details

The exhibition opens with three case studies: Maurice Hilleman, the 1985 Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Black and Minority Health, and San Francisco's Chinese Benevolent Association. Objects on display include the Liotta-Cooley artificial heart from 1969 and a 1928 sample of penicillin mold from Alexander Fleming's lab.

1899: The Chinese Benevolent Association established the Tung Wah Dispensary in San Francisco to serve a community excluded from the city's hospitals.
1928: A sample of penicillin mold from Alexander Fleming's lab is dated.
1969: The Liotta-Cooley artificial heart was implanted in a human.
1985: The Secretary's Task Force report on Black and Minority Health was released.
November 6, 2026: The exhibition opened to the public.

Healthcare Landscape

The exhibition highlights the 1985 Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Black and Minority Health, which was the first time the federal government acknowledged racial and ethnic health disparities in the United States. It places that federal acknowledgment alongside earlier community-led efforts, such as the Chinese Benevolent Association's 1899 dispensary in San Francisco.

Visitors to the exhibition can see how medical advances and disparities have affected patients over time. The display focuses on the history of care rather than current treatment options or access changes.

The takeaway

The exhibition shows that healthcare progress has depended on the people who pushed for care in underserved communities as much as on scientific breakthroughs. Its three case studies suggest that understanding who was left out of medical systems is central to understanding how those systems changed.