History of VA in 100 Objects

On January 3, 1946, President Harry Truman established the forerunner of today’s Veterans Health Administration when he signed Public Law 79-293, creating the Department of Medicine and Surgery within the Veterans Administration.

More than 15,000 Revolutionary War Veterans qualified for a pension. Veteran Joseph Winter was one of the unlucky few who did not. Winter lived in a settlement near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania before the war, where he supported his family as a weaver. As he grew older, his vision deteriorated and he could no longer perform the work required by his chosen trade. With no pension, Winter became homeless.

National cemeteries played a role in the repatriation process for servicemembers who died outside of the United States during the two world wars.

In 1960, a VA research team led by surgeon William Chardack inserted what he described as a “battery-operated gadget about twice as big as a spool of Scotch tape and much the same shape” under the skin of a patient suffering from a complete heart block. The gadget was the first cardiac pacemaker.

History of VA in 100 Objects: The U.S. Naval Asylum in Philadelphia was the first federal facility to provide institutional care for disabled and elderly Veterans.

The first permanent informational plaques placed in national cemeteries after the Civil War were affixed to upright cannons to brand these sites as a shrine to Union dead. These bronze shield plaques were installed after a 1872 report and served as early monuments to Union dead from the Civil War at national cemeteries.

For a nation with limited financial resources, bounty land warrants were an appealing tool to encourage military enlistments. The promise of free 160 acres was the country's second benefit authorized for Veterans. However, the measure had devastating effect on the Indian nations that were dispossessed from the land.

On July 13, 1895, renowned suffragist and social activist Susan B. Anthony visited Fort Scott National Cemetery, Kansas. Sitting on a table within the cemetery superintendent's lodge was a leather-bound visitor register, which she signed.