The neuroanatomical resources of the National Museum of Health and Medicine at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology date back to 1862. There are several collections, the most well-known of which is probably the Yakovlev-Haleem Collection, which consists of almost 1,200 specimens from the embryo to the centenarian. Other groupings are the extensive comparative collections of Wally Welker and John I. Johnson and the Lindenberg Forensic Neuroanatomy Collection. Many large collections have been added in recent decades.
Each item has been serially sectioned and histologically stained. Pictured is a set of whole brain slices from the Yakovlev-Haleem collection, sitting in a drawer among many similarly filled drawers. This collection of singularly stunning items is an ideal resource for studying ontogeny of the human brain and for comparisons between the brains of human and non-human primates. Hundreds of scientists have made use of the collection. It was even used recently when ...
