The development of the new services may be dated from the employment, in June 1917, of Roy M. Reeve as photographer— an employment which was the beginning of a career of nearly four decades in the graphic depiction of military medicine by the use of the camera. 25 [1]
In November 1917, Lt. Thomas L. W. Evans, head of a New York firm of "commercial cinematographers" and a man of experience in the then young motion-picture industry, was put in charge of the new Instruction Laboratory (fig. 56). The operations of the Laboratory grew to include Mr. Reeve's section of still photography ; a section of motion pictures, headed at first by Lt. Robert Ross and later, after Lieutenant Ross had gone to France, by Lt. Charles W. Wallach; an anatomical art service headed at first by Lt. William T. Schwarz, then by Lt. Morris L. Bower, and at the end of the war by Lt. Raymond O. Ellis; and a section of wax modeling under Capt. James Frank Wallis." 26[2]
Through these various graphic methods the Instruction Laboratory sought to reach and inform a threefold audience — troops in training, medical officers, and the civilian world, including especially civilian medical men.
Motion Pictures
A major activity of the Laboratory was the production, reproduction, and distribution of motion-picture films. Altogether, 137 such films, including both those produced by the Laboratory and those produced by other organizations and distributed by it, were listed as available for showing in camps and cantonments and through civilian outlets." 27[3]
The films offered for showing to the various "publics" ranged in length from one-half reel to a nine-reel production on the diagnosis of tuberculosis. The picture most widely shown and frequently discussed was a four-reeler, "Fit to Fight," described as a "venereal disease photo play" which in three reels of dramatic action told a story and, in one reel showing clinical consequences, pointed a moral (fig. 57).
"Fit to Fight" was designed primarily for showing in the training camps but was also shown, in a somewhat revised form, to selected civilian audiences. Such showings were arranged by the Commission on Training Camp Activities, by local departments of health and police authorities, by major industries, and by the U.S. Public Health Service, among others.
- ↑ 25 Creer, Ralph P.: Medical Illustration in the United States Army; Historical and Present Considerations. Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine 28: 651-661, February 1943.
- ↑ 26 Memorandum, Colonel Owen to Lieutenant Colonel Fulton, 25 October 1918. On file in historical records of AFIP: Evans, Ross, and Schwarz.
- ↑ 27 Medical Department History, World War I, volume I, p. 515. 713-028-— 64 --13
