Original Title/Caption: “Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C. Convalescent soldiers on a porch.”

Description: This black and white photograph shows five injured soldiers and two nurses conversing on a porch of the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C.  Three of the soldiers are seated in wheelchairs, and two of the soldiers lean on the porch railing.  One of the standing soldiers holds a cane, and the other holds a crutch.  This photograph was taken in May 1943 by Ann Rosener.

Source: Rosener, Ann, photographer.  “Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C. Convalescent soldiers on a porch.”  Photograph, 1943.  From Library of Congress: Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Call number LC-USW3- 035263-D.  http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d31906 (accessed March 20, 2007).

Historical discussion: Historian Albert E. Cowdrey argues, “Rehabilitation—physical and occupational therapy and retraining—formed a big part of the program in the stateside hospitals. . . . [T]he medical logic behind rehabilitation began with the observation that ‘absolute bed rest kills more patients than anesthesia and all the drugs in the pharmacopoeia added together’” (Cowdrey 325).