World War I

“the most crucial part of making Walter Reed and Letterman rehabilitation hospitals was the creation of ‘curative workshops.’ Early in war, there were little more than “maintenance sheds, places where carpenters and automobile repairman worked . . . This singular act of turning the working quarters of army post carpenters and mechanics into places of medical treatment demonstrates the degree to which rehabilitative medicine became insinuated into regular hospital practice. . . . Hospital maintenance . . . would become places for medical cures, bringing normal, every day labor under the umbrella of medicine” (Linker, 91, 92). At Walter Reed, six new wards were keyed to specific work activities: commercial dept., electrical dept., laboratory for artificial limbs,” automobile shop, etc. (92). This attests to “how vocational training became medicalized and a regular part of health care delivery during the war” (93).